Google Search

Report September 2026

Submitted

Executive summary


Google’s mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. To deliver on this mission, and as technology evolves, helping users find useful, relevant and high-quality information across our services is of utmost importance. 

Since Google was founded, Google’s product, policy, and content enforcement decisions have been guided by the following three principles:

  1. We value openness and accessibility: We lean towards keeping content accessible by providing access to an open and diverse information ecosystem.
  2. We respect user choice: If users search for content that is not illegal or prohibited by our policies, they should be able to find it.
  3. We build for everyone: Our services are used around the world by users from different cultures, languages, and backgrounds, and at different stages in their lives. We take the diversity of our users into account in policy development and policy enforcement decisions.

With these principles in mind, Google has long invested in ranking systems and has teams around the world working to connect people with high-quality content; in developing and enforcing rules that prohibit harmful behaviours and content on Google services; and in innovative ways to provide context to users when they might need it most. 

How companies like Google address information quality concerns has an impact on society and on the trust users place in our services. We are cognisant that these are complex issues, affecting all of society, which no single actor is in a position to fully tackle on their own. That is why we have welcomed the multi-stakeholder approach put forward by the EU Code of Conduct on Disinformation. 

Alongside our participation in the EU Code of Conduct on Disinformation, we continue to work closely with regulators to ensure that our services appropriately comply with the EU Digital Services Act (EU DSA), in full respect of EU fundamental rights such as freedom of expression.

The work of supporting a healthy information ecosystem is never finished and we remain committed to it. This is in our interest and the interest of our users.

This report includes metrics and narrative detail for Google Search, YouTube, and Google Advertising users in the European Union (EU), and covers the period from 1 January 2026 to 30 June 2026.

Updates to highlight in this report include (but are not limited to): 
  • 2026 Elections across EU Member States: During the reporting period, voters cast their ballots in Slovenia, Hungary, Denmark, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Malta. Google supported these democratic processes by surfacing high-quality information to voters, safeguarding its platforms from abuse, and equipping campaigns with best-in-class security tools and training. In addition, Google put in place a number of policies and other measures that helped people navigate political content that was AI-generated, content labels on YouTube, and digital watermarking tools. 
  • Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and provenance transparency: In H1 2026, we announced new and expanded AI provenance tools to help increase content transparency, including Content Credentials verification across products. Content Credentials (C2PA) verification shows users whether the origin of content was AI or a camera, and if it’s been edited with generative AI tools. To give more access to this information, we have begun to expand both Content Credentials and SynthID verification beyond Gemini by integrating into our Search and Chrome products. For example, Google Lens has integrated SynthID verification. 
  • When we launched SynthID in 2023— a state-of-the-art tool that embeds imperceptible watermarks and enables the identification of AI-generated content — our aim was to provide a suite of novel technical solutions to help minimise misinformation and misattribution.
    • SynthID not only preserves the content’s quality, it acts as a robust watermark that remains detectable even when the content is shared or undergoes a range of transformations. While originally focused on AI-generated imagery only, we have since expanded SynthID to include AI-generated text, audio and video content, including content generated by our Gemini, Imagen, Lyria and Veo models. Since launch, over 100 billion images and videos and 60,000 years of audio assets have been watermarked with SynthID.
    • SynthID Detector, a verification portal to identify AI-generated content made with Google AI, was introduced in May 2025. The portal, which is accessible to early testers, provides detection capabilities across different modalities in one place, and provides essential transparency in the rapidly evolving landscape of generative media. Its eventual goal is to provide cross-verification capabilities within our ecosystem of SynthID partners. In November 2025, detection capabilities for Google AI-generated content were integrated natively into the Gemini app, allowing millions of people to quickly verify content provenance. In May 2026, we expanded this verification capability to Search features like Google Lens and announced that the integration was coming soon to Chrome.
    • How SynthID Detector & verification works: When a user uploads an image, audio track, or video via Google's AI tools or SynthID-integrated partner tools (see next bullet), our verification systems will scan the media for a SynthID watermark. If a watermark is detected, we will highlight specific portions of the content most likely to be watermarked. For audio, we pinpoint specific segments where a SynthID watermark is detected, and for images, we indicate areas where a watermark is most likely.
  • In addition to our continued work and investment in new tools, we are also committed to working with the greater ecosystem and across the industry to help others benefit from and improve on the advances we are making. As such, we have open-sourced SynthID text watermarking through our updated Responsible Generative AI Toolkit and several of our industry partners, including Nvidia, OpenAI and ElevenLabs, have integrated SynthID into their tools to embed watermarks in their own AI-generated content.
  • Underpinning our advancements in AI, as a member of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), we collaborated with Adobe, Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta, startups, and many others to build and implement the newest version of the coalition’s technical standard, Content Credentials (v2.4, launched in April 2026). This version expands native support for additional digital media container types, updates assertion structures for improved lineage tracking, and adds security guidance for handling sensitive metadata.

Google has been working on AI for over a decade to solve society’s biggest challenges and also power the Google services people use every day. The progress in large-scale AI models (including generative AI) has sparked additional discussion about the social impacts of AI and raised concerns on topics such as disinformation. Google is committed to developing technology responsibly and first published AI Principles in 2018 to guide our work. Google’s robust internal governance focuses on responsibility throughout the AI development lifecycle, covering model development, application deployment, and post-launch monitoring. We publish an annual Responsible AI Progress Report with the latest published in February 2026. Through our philanthropic arm, Google.org, we have supported organisations that are using AI to tackle important societal issues. Google Search has published guidance for developers on AI-generated content, outlining its approach to maintaining a high standard of information quality and the overall helpfulness of content on Search. 

To help enhance information quality across its services, Google continuously works to integrate new innovations in watermarking, metadata, and other techniques into its latest generative models. Google has also joined other leading AI companies to jointly commit to advancing responsible practices in the development of artificial intelligence, which will support efforts by the G7, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and national governments. Going forward, we will continue to report and expand upon Google-developed AI tools and are committed to advancing bold and responsible AI to maximise AI’s benefits and minimise its risks.

Lastly, the contents of this report should be read with the following context in mind: 
  • This report discusses the key approaches across the following Google services when it comes to addressing disinformation: Google Search, YouTube, and Google Advertising. 
  • For chapters of the Code that involve the same actions across all three services (e.g. participation in the Permanent Task-force or in development of the Transparency Centre), we respond as 'Google, on behalf of related services'.
  • This report follows the structure and template laid out by the Code’s Permanent Task-force, organised around Commitments and Chapters of the Code.
  • Unless otherwise specified, metrics provided cover activities and actions during the period from 1 January 2026 to 30 June 2026.
  • The data provided in this report is subject to a range of factors, including product changes and user settings, and so is expected to fluctuate over the time of the reporting period. As Google continues to evolve its approach, in part to better address user and regulatory needs, the data reported here could vary substantially over time. 
  • We are continuously working to improve the safety and reliability of our services. We are not always in a position to pre-announce specific launch dates, details or timelines for upcoming improvements, and therefore may reply 'no' when asked whether we can disclose future plans for Code implementation measures in the coming reporting period. This 'no' should be understood in the context that we are constantly working to improve safety and reliability and may in fact launch relevant changes without the ability to pre-announce. 
  • This report is filed concurrently with two ‘crisis reports’ about our response to the Israel-Gaza conflict and to the war in Ukraine. Additionally, an annex on Google’s response to the recent elections in Slovenia, Hungary, Denmark, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Malta is included in this report.
  • The term ‘disinformation’ in this report refers to the definition included in the EU Code of Conduct on Disinformation.

Google looks forward to continuing to work together with other stakeholders in the EU to address challenges related to disinformation.

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Commitment 17
In light of the European Commission's initiatives in the area of media literacy, including the new Digital Education Action Plan, Relevant Signatories commit to continue and strengthen their efforts in the area of media literacy and critical thinking, also with the aim to include vulnerable groups.
We signed up to the following measures of this commitment
Measure 17.1 Measure 17.2 Measure 17.3
In line with this commitment, did you deploy new implementation measures (e.g. changes to your terms of service, new tools, new policies, etc)?
Yes
If yes, list these implementation measures here
See QREs 17.1.1 and 17.3.1
Do you plan to put further implementation measures in place in the next 6 months to substantially improve the maturity of the implementation of this commitment?
No
If yes, which further implementation measures do you plan to put in place in the next 6 months?
N/A
Measure 17.1
Relevant Signatories will design and implement or continue to maintain tools to improve media literacy and critical thinking, for instance by empowering users with context on the content visible on services or with guidance on how to evaluate online content.
QRE 17.1.1
Relevant Signatories will outline the tools they develop or maintain that are relevant to this commitment and report on their deployment in each Member State.
Note: The below QRE response has been reproduced (in some instances truncated in order to meet the suggested character limit) from the previous report as there is no new information to share now.

Google Search aims to connect users with high-quality information, and help users understand and evaluate that information. Google Search has invested heavily in both information quality and information literacy. Some ways in which Google Search does this include:

  • ‘About this result’: Next to results on Google Search, users can tap the three-dot menu icon to learn more about the result and the source of the information. With this additional context, users are able to make more informed decisions about the sites they want to visit, how credible a site may be, and what results will be most useful for them. 
    • Learn about “Your search & this result”: This section of the ‘About this result’ panel offers users transparency into why specific content was surfaced for their unique query. It may include search terms that appear in the result, whether there are related images, and language and local references. In this section, users can also learn when the site was first indexed by Google, which is the date that Google first crawled the site.
    • Share, save, or provide feedback on the result: At the top of the ‘About this result’ panel, users can easily access options to take actions on the specific result, including sharing, saving, submitting removal requests, or providing feedback on the content. In this section, users might see some text from the site or a description of the source from a reference site. These descriptions generally come from Google’s Knowledge Graph, though they can also come from website owners directly.
    • Understand platform information: For some social platforms, users may see information about the social account or channel that the page represents.

Google Search’s ongoing dedication to enhancing the utility of 'About this result'—combined with our work on Content Advisory Notices, 'About this image,' SynthID, SynthID Detector, C2PA content credentials, and verification capabilities—highlights our commitment to elevating user media literacy and providing context about the information that users see.

  • Additional tools for content provenance transparency and verification: As generative media becomes more advanced and accessible, Google has continued to invest in improvements to content provenance and verification tools. SynthID, introduced in 2023, is our industry-leading digital watermarking technology that embeds imperceptible signals into AI-generated content. Since launch, we’ve integrated SynthID into our generative media models and products, watermarking over 100 billion images and videos and 60,000 years of audio. We have also open-sourced SynthID text watermarking through our updated Responsible Generative AI Toolkit and several of our industry partners, including Nvidia, OpenAI, and ElevenLabs, have integrated SynthID into their tools to embed watermarks in their own AI-generated content. 

  • To enable verification capabilities, we developed SynthID Detector and, in late 2025, added SynthID verification for Google AI-generated image, video and audio to the Gemini app. In May 2026, we expanded this verification capability to Search. Users can now learn about an image's origin by using Search features like Lens, AI Mode and Circle to Search, as well as Gemini in Chrome. 

  • Across a growing number of our generative media tools, we also use C2PA Content Credentials, the industry standard that shows how media was created and modified, with or without AI. We’re now adding verification for C2PA Content Credentials to easily check if content is an unaltered original from a camera or if it has been modified, and by what tools. This feature rolled out in the Gemini app in May 2026, and will soon be available within features across Search like Google Lens and Image Search, as well as within Chrome.

  • ‘About this image’: With added insights in ‘About this image’, users will know if an image may have been generated with Google’s AI tools when they come across it in Search or Chrome. All images generated via Google’s consumer products are marked by SynthID, a tool developed by Google DeepMind that adds a digital watermark directly into the pixels of images that are generated. SynthID watermarks are imperceptible to the human eye but detectable for identification. Search has also integrated C2PA metadata (Content Credentials) into ‘About this Image’ to enable users to check image provenance and verify if an image was created or edited with AI tools. 'About this image’ is available in more than 40 languages around the world, including English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Vietnamese.
    • Learn how old the image is: Within ‘About this image,’ users can see how old versions of the image are. For example, a user might see text that reads, “A version of this image is at least 10 years old.” This helps a user understand the image’s recency.
    • Understand where the image is found: Another part of this tool is the “Found on these pages” section, which shows the user other sites where the exact or similar images may be found.
    • More information on ‘About this image’ can be found here. 
    • We continue to look at ways to integrate integrity and provenance signals more directly throughout the Search experience, with a view to enhancing user experience and providing users with the context needed to make informed decisions about the information they see online. For example, we are looking at embedding image provenance into Google Search features in order to enable users to check image provenance more seamlessly.

  • Content Advisory Notices: Helpful notices for users that highlight when information is scarce or when interest is travelling faster than facts. These are specifically designed to address data voids which include queries for which either content is limited or nonexistent or when a topic is rapidly evolving and reliable information is not yet available for that topic. Google Search is evolving Content Advisory Notices by exploring new ways to present users with helpful and relevant information through our AI features. 
SLI 17.1.1
Relevant Signatories will report, at the Member State level, on metrics pertinent to assessing the effects of the tools described in the qualitative reporting element for Measure 17.1, which will include: the total count of impressions of the tool; and information on the interactions/engagement with the tool.
(1) Impression proportion estimate of content advisories for low relevance results during the reporting period, broken down by EEA Member State;

(2) Impression proportion estimate of content advisories for rapidly changing results during the reporting period, broken down by EEA Member State;

Note metrics 1 and 2 are estimated proportions; metric 1 represents the number of content advisories for low relevance results out of all queries over the reporting period; metric 2 follows the same logic but is for content advisories for rapidly changing results. 

(3) Number of times the ‘Source’ section of the ‘About This Result’ panel was viewed during the reporting period, broken down by EEA Member State;

(4) Number of times the 'Your Search and this result' section of the ‘About This Result’ panel was viewed during the reporting period, broken down by EEA Member State.
Impression proportion estimate of content advisories for low relevance results (%) Impression proportion estimate of content advisories for rapidly changing results (%) Number of times the 'Source' section of the 'About This Result' panel was viewed Number of times the 'Your Search and this result' section of the 'About This Result' panel was viewed
Austria 0.053% 0.00080% 13,817,468 13,462,528
Belgium 0.052% 0.00066% 16,568,656 16,116,608
Bulgaria 0.049% 0.00171% 7,663,004 7,363,084
Croatia 0.054% 0.00110% 6,598,728 6,231,320
Cyprus 0.049% 0.00109% 1,720,588 1,668,936
Czech Republic 0.039% 0.00052% 12,425,196 12,123,040
Denmark 0.040% 0.00147% 7,659,428 7,518,980
Estonia 0.087% 0.00134% 1,805,520 1,766,492
Finland 0.039% 0.00139% 10,014,832 9,821,984
France 0.070% 0.00099% 89,255,752 85,088,548
Germany 0.061% 0.00084% 135,844,660 131,579,808
Greece 0.067% 0.00068% 14,606,196 14,002,692
Hungary 0.048% 0.00135% 10,996,928 10,618,924
Ireland 0.038% 0.00133% 10,214,444 9,805,744
Italy 0.079% 0.00044% 114,897,024 109,079,816
Latvia 0.103% 0.00083% 2,124,736 2,060,176
Lithuania 0.055% 0.00079% 3,280,188 3,191,600
Luxembourg 0.053% 0.00121% 899,504 874,464
Malta 0.047% 0.00142% 848,916 824,980
Netherlands 0.047% 0.00089% 33,815,392 32,835,924
Poland 0.029% 0.00047% 61,516,008 60,024,992
Portugal 0.043% 0.00080% 15,165,976 14,629,708
Romania 0.038% 0.00089% 16,722,404 16,134,944
Slovakia 0.057% 0.00060% 6,294,080 6,120,708
Slovenia 0.107% 0.00112% 2,756,568 2,649,372
Spain 0.044% 0.00083% 81,343,256 77,934,072
Sweden 0.030% 0.00128% 16,639,924 16,347,944
Iceland 0.065% 0.00211% 450,720 442,528
Liechtenstein 0.065% 0.00164% 47,912 47,048
Norway 0.023% 0.00131% 7,910,512 7,774,592
Total EU 0.055% 0.00082% 695,495,376 669,877,388
Total EEA 0.055% 0.00083% 703,904,520 678,141,556