How a Google News SERP request works

Send a query and select the Google news result type. The endpoint returns a snapshot of the news results page, not a persistent news database or a feed of every article published on a topic.

curl https://api.serqo.io/v1/search \
  -H "x-api-key: $SERP_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"q":"renewable energy","engine":"google","type":"news","gl":"us","hl":"en","tbs":"qdr:w"}'

Use q for the query, gl for the country market and hl for the interface language. The example’s tbs: "qdr:w" requests Google’s past-week filter; the API accepts Google time filters such as qdr:d, qdr:w and qdr:m. Check the Google News API reference before using other filter syntax.

Read the returned article fields

News items are returned in data.results. Depending on the result, fields can include position, title, url, source, date, snippet and thumbnail. The date is extracted display text—such as “2 hours ago”—and is not guaranteed to be an ISO timestamp. Store the collection time separately if you need reliable chronological analysis.

Build a useful monitoring workflow

  1. Choose a narrow query that describes the subject or event you need to monitor.
  2. Fix gl, hl and any supported time filter for that monitoring run.
  3. Schedule requests in your application at the interval your use case requires.
  4. Store request settings, collection time, source and article URL; deduplicate on a stable URL when possible.
  5. Review changes in result coverage and ordering instead of treating one response as complete coverage of the news.

What this API does not provide

A news SERP request does not guarantee exhaustive article coverage, continuous streaming, full-text access or a permanent publication timestamp. The results reflect what Google displayed for a particular query and context at collection time. Result availability and ordering can change.

Frequently asked questions

Can I limit Google News results to the last day or week?

For supported Google requests, the tbs parameter accepts time filters such as qdr:d and qdr:w. Use the documented syntax and verify the response because a filter does not guarantee a fixed number of results.

Does the result date represent the exact publication time?

Not necessarily. The returned date can be relative display text. Keep your own collection timestamp and avoid converting that text into an exact publication time unless you can verify it from the publisher.

Can I paginate through all Google News stories?

No API can promise every story from a changing search results page. When data.pagination.hasNext is true, use nextStart as documented, but treat each page as another snapshot request.

See the Google News API reference and the Google SERP API guide.