Google removes num=100 search parameter, impacting startups and LLMs

View profile for Adarsh Appaiah

Building Agentic AI For Software Buying

Google just made a subtle but massive change Last month, Google quietly removed the num=100 search parameter. This means you can no longer view 100 results at once. The default max is now 10. Why does this matter? - Most LLMs (OpenAI, Perplexity, etc.) rely (directly or indirectly) on Google’s indexed results, alongside their own crawlers. - Overnight, their access to the “long tail” of the internet was cut by 90%. The fallout: -According to Search Engine Land, 88% of sites saw a drop in impressions. - Reddit, which often ranks in positions 11–100, saw its LLM citations plummet. Its stock dropped 15%, wiping out ~$5B in market cap. For startups, this is brutal. Visibility just got harder. It’s no longer enough to build a great product you need to crack distribution first. Because if people can’t discover you, they’ll never get to evaluate you. In today’s AI-driven ecosystem:  Distribution > Product AuthenCIO Raghav Arora Samiran Phukon

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CA Akshat K.

Founder @Leasify- Capital at a click | Diversify with liquid High Yield Alternative Investments | Ex- BoA Merrill Lynch | CA | CFA | LL.B. | B.Com. | Gym | Submission Wrestling | Motorbikes

3w

this is the first information rich content i've read in weeks on linkedin. thanks!

Pranjal G.

I decode Big Tech's AI secrets so regular developers can win | 13K+ subscribers | Creator of BSKiller

3w

This is a massive misread of what happened. Sept 10: Google kills num=100 → Search APIs lose 80% of results → Reddit disappears from ChatGPT → Stock drops 14% ($5B gone) Everyone thinks Reddit lost. They’re wrong. Before: OpenAI scraped Reddit for free via Google Now: OpenAI must pay Reddit directly ($60M/year) Google didn’t attack AI. Google forced AI companies to stop freeloading. The stock dropped because investors saw “citations down.” Smart money sees: “Direct deals now mandatory.” Reddit owns the content everyone needs: • ChatGPT can’t survive without UGC • Google AI needs Reddit answers • Reddit knows this The fact that citations dropping 86% moved their stock 14% proves how valuable their content is. That’s not weakness. That’s pricing power. Google just handed Reddit negotiating leverage by killing free access. This 14% drop is a gift if you understand what just happened. Stock recovers when the new deals drop at higher rates. Mark this.

Federico Concas

Principal Data Scientist @ GSK

3w

So here’s my take (opinions are my own, not my employer’s): Have you noticed Google results have become terrible in the past few years? Google has degraded its search quality to boost ad revenue — users have to scroll for longer so they can be shown more ads. Google has now removed the num=100 parameter to prevent ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude from using SerpAPI and other scrapers. ChatGPT and Perplexity were doing a much better job of going through the top 100 results and finding the most relevant answer to users' questions — bypassing Google's entire business model of Ads. So Google tried to close that loophole. Google, which holds a monopoly in the online search market according to a recent U.S. court proceeding, appears to have chosen to disregard the judge’s recommendations while it appeals, and it's betting that the benefits of anti-competitive practices will absorb potential penalties. The AI race is in full swing and the consolidation of services is about to begin — we will only use one service for online searches and it better be Google.

Anuj Gupta

System Analyst at Ministry of Youth affairs & Sports,GoI | MTech CSE(IS) NITK’24 | Strong financial & technical acumen | Tech(IT) policy advisor to the Ministry | Interested in Gen AI, ML/DL, Data science top roles

3w

tbh it has become worse, bcoz most of the times I never got the relevant result in just 10 links, and I was looking whole time that where 100+ links went away in the middle. Started using duckduckgo as I can find more relevant results from there.

Nathaneo Johnson

Founder & CEO @ Series | Yale ‘26

3w

A product that is seen by everyone > A product known by no one

Aman Singh

2x Founder | Fractional CFO | Worked with 50+ Startups Globally | IIM'K - IIT'R

3w

Distribution to a large extent owned by big tech.

Prashant Bhapkar

Senior Software Engineer | Generative AI, DevSecOps, Automation | Talk about Tech, Personal Finance, and Growth

3w

This is a big shift that many people won’t notice at first. If fewer results are shown, smaller sites and new startups will struggle to be discovered.

Rohit Nigam

Gen-AI @ Autodesk. Ex Meta, Adobe, Symantec

3w

ChatGPT still relies on Bing which is much more supportive to the start-ups. Thankfully

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