[Google Search API] Requests timing out while using tbm=nws with advanced parameters

Incident Report for SerpApi

Update

As mentioned earlier, Google doesn't serve the News tab (tbm=nws) for site: queries to signed-out users anymore. We have updated our documentation to reflect this: https://serpapi.com/search-api#api-parameters-search-query-q

Those searches now result in an appropriate error message instead of timing out.

You can specify example.com instead of site:example.com in your query as a workaround, or use the Google News API.

We are still working on addressing requests failing with queries containing other advanced parameters such as AND and OR.

Posted Oct 16, 2026 - 21:00 UTC

Identified

We're working on implementing a fix. The team noticed that the advanced inline site: operator is no longer supported in the Google Search API when using the tbm=nws flag. We recommend switching to our Google News API (https://serpapi.com/google-news-api) or dropping the site: parameter from nws searches.

We'll follow up as soon as we have additional updates.

Posted Oct 12, 2026 - 08:49 UTC

Update

We're continuing to investigate this issue. We'll keep you updated as soon as we have any progress or new information to share.

Posted Sep 19, 2026 - 23:33 UTC

Investigating

Google searches with the tbm=nws parameter are currently timing out. We're investigating the issue and will follow up with updates.

https://github.com/serpapi/public-roadmap/issues/4185

Posted Aug 26, 2026 - 14:30 UTC

This incident affects: Google (Search API).