Google Search status

How we check Google Search

We watch www.google.com/search?q=test from all five of our probe regions, every 2 minutes. A region that sees a failure does not make this page say "down" on its own: a second region has to agree first, the same confirmation rule every YoPingMe monitor uses.

We watch the search results endpoint itself, not the plain homepage, because a homepage that loads while search results fail would leave the actual product broken and this page saying otherwise. We pin the response an anonymous, unauthenticated query receives every 2 minutes.

What is Google Search?

Google Search is the default way a huge share of the internet finds anything, which makes "is Google down" one of the most searched questions about an outage there is, itself a small irony worth noting. This page watches the search results endpoint specifically rather than the bare homepage, because a homepage that loads while results fail would leave the actual product broken and a page claiming otherwise.

Personalisation is the first thing worth understanding before treating any difference in results as a sign of trouble. Google tailors results by location, search history, and device, deliberately and by design, so two people running the identical query at the identical moment can see genuinely different pages. That variation is normal behaviour, not evidence that one connection is degraded relative to the other, and it is worth ruling out before comparing notes with someone else during a suspected incident.

Anti-abuse challenges are the most common thing mistaken for an outage. A captcha or an "unusual traffic" interstitial means the request reached Google and was flagged, usually because of a shared IP address, a VPN exit node with a poor reputation, or a query pattern that looks automated, rather than anything wrong with search itself. Completing the challenge or switching networks resolves it immediately, and it is a sign the service is answering, not failing.

Google's products share infrastructure without being one system for availability purposes. Search, Gmail, and Drive are each tracked and can degrade independently, so a search-specific incident does not automatically mean the rest of Google's products are affected, and a Gmail or Drive incident does not automatically mean search is. Watching each product separately, the way this site does across several Google services, gives a more accurate picture than assuming one outage explains everything at once.

DNS and local network issues account for a large share of "Google is down" reports that turn out to be nothing of the kind. A resolver serving a stale cached answer, a captive portal on public wifi silently intercepting requests, or a browser extension interfering with the results page will all produce a broken-looking search experience while Google answers every other visitor normally. Trying a different network or a different device is usually a faster diagnostic than waiting on any status page, including this one.

Frequently asked questions

Is Google Search down right now?

Check the board above; it reflects our own probes running a real search query from all five of our regions, refreshed every couple of minutes and confirmed across two regions before this page would call it down.

Search results will not load for me but this page shows Google up. What should I check?

Check your own network and DNS first, since these cause far more search trouble than an outage at Google's scale. A DNS resolver serving a stale answer, a browser extension interfering with the results page, or a captive portal on public wifi intercepting the request will all block search while Google answers everyone else normally.

Why do my search results look different from someone else's for the same query?

Because results are personalised by location, search history, and device by design, not because something is broken. Two people searching the identical phrase at the identical moment can see genuinely different result pages, which is expected behaviour rather than a sign either person's connection is degraded.

Does a Google Search outage affect Gmail, Drive, or other Google products?

Not necessarily. Search, Gmail, and Drive are tracked and can degrade separately even though they share underlying infrastructure, so a search-specific incident can leave the rest of Google's products working fine and vice versa. This page watches search specifically, since that is the product most people mean by "is Google down."

I am seeing a captcha or "unusual traffic" page instead of results. Is that an outage?

No, that page means Google answered and is challenging the request, usually because of a shared IP address, a VPN, or an automated query pattern rather than anything wrong with the service. Completing the challenge or switching networks resolves it, and it says nothing about whether search is generally available.