[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

[githubfan21]

hey guys, this is happening a lot
https://serpapi.com/searches/67aa2b93ac46dcefc20edea9/inspect
https://serpapi.com/searches/67aa2b93b76dc7abdefad2df/inspect
https://serpapi.com/searches/67aa2b9275d080c8fd02a8bd/inspect

this is critical

[githubfan21]

success rate is very low, out of a 400 runs we did last 2 hours, only 70 returned top stories in json - that's 17%

[sonika-serpapi]

@githubfan21 Thank you for sharing the searches with us. I've increased the priority for this to prioritized. Our team will look into it and we will reach out to let you know once this is fixed.

[ocvit]

Fix has been released.

Affected top_stories layouts are parsed correctly now.

[marm123]

Thank you @ocvit! @githubfan21 tagging for visibility