Google has announced that it has started requiring users to turn on JavaScript, a programming language widely used to make web pages interactive, in order to use Google Search.
In an email to TechCrunch, a company spokesperson said the changes will “better protect” Google Search from malicious activity like bots and spam, and improve the overall Google search experience for users. He claimed that it was aimed at. The spokesperson noted that many features of Google Search don't work properly without JavaScript, and search results tend to be of lower quality.
“Enabling JavaScript allows us to better protect our services and users from bots and evolving forms of fraud and spam, and allows us to provide you with the most relevant and up-to-date information. '' a spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Many major websites rely on JavaScript. According to a 2020 GitHub study, 95% of sites on the web use this language in some way. But as social media users have noted, Google's decision to mandate it could increase friction for users who rely on accessibility tools that may have issues with certain JavaScript implementations. There is.
JavaScript also has security vulnerabilities. Technology company Datadog found in its 2024 annual security study that approximately 70% of JavaScript services are vulnerable to one or more “critical” or “high severity” vulnerabilities introduced by third-party software libraries. I discovered that.
A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch that on average, “less than 0.1%” of Google searches are performed by users who have JavaScript disabled. This is not a small number at Google's scale. Google processes approximately 8.5 billion searches a day, so we can safely assume that millions of people performing searches through Google are not using JavaScript.
One of Google's motives here may be to ban third-party tools that provide insight into Google search trends and traffic. According to a post on Friday's Search Engine Roundtable, many “rank check” tools (tools that show a website's search engine performance) have been causing problems in Google Search since Google's JavaScript requirements went into effect. I started.
A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the Search Engine Roundtable report.