[Google Search API] mobile and tablet searches sporadically not returning top_stories block

[githubfan21]

https://serpapi.com/searches/88a7820996cfbe1d/679cf9036320cf0b20625688.html
https://serpapi.com/searches/679d272fd2a2426d3fe7ab9b/inspect
https://www.beta.newzdash.com/html/45415016_144387008.html

the whole top stories block is missing - it is happenning a lot

[NateSkiles]

@githubfan21 After reviewing further, this does appear to be different than #2200. Apologies for my confusion!

I haven't been able to reproduce this, but I'll reopen this and continue to investigate.

In the meantime, are you observing this sporadically or very often?

[NateSkiles]

I ran a script to test this locally and found 25 out of 250 searches did not return top_stories:

Total requests: 250
Successful searches: 225
Empty results: 25

Additional failed searches:

• https://serpapi.com/searches/679d41bcdc4524889961e0e5/inspect
• https://serpapi.com/searches/679d41bcdea58f5d38266015/inspect
• https://serpapi.com/searches/679d41913dca69fd87c27b1c/inspect

All of these searches were performed using different proxy providers, some of which I was able to confirm returned the top_stories block. For example, the following search used the same proxy as the "failed" search above:

• https://serpapi.com/searches/679d41bce2a974b20214ade6/inspect

While desktop does not appear to be affected, I'm also seeing this behavior for tablet searches at approximately the same rate:

• https://serpapi.com/searches/679d436961a68fd00fa8a838/inspect
• https://serpapi.com/searches/679d43c478823fbd211d4590/inspect
• https://serpapi.com/searches/679d43c422e4bca0006bc6e8/inspect

---

@githubfan21, while this appears to be sporadic, we will investigate this further.

[andypple83]

I can reproduce with this search | Inpsect

[martin-serpapi]

Another customer reported this:

Intercom