# Changelog of Google Forums Scraper (`searchapi/google-forums-scraper`) Actor

- **URL**: https://apify.com/searchapi/google-forums-scraper/changelog.md
- **Full Actor documentation**: https://apify.com/searchapi/google-forums-scraper.md

## Changelog

### \[3.1.0] - 2026-09-22

#### Changed

- Rechecked the live Google Forums route (`udm=18`) in Chrome against the checked-in mechanical-keyboard query and kept the existing forum-card extraction paths intact.
- Added page-relative positions, explicit source and retrieval fields, and synchronized nested search metadata to the dataset contract.
- Added recursive dataset auditing for populated fields, types, URLs, duplicate IDs, metadata parity, and sensitive-field leaks.
- Removed the unused debug input option and aligned the browser runtime with the pinned Playwright and Crawlee versions.

### \[3.0.0] - 2026-08-29

#### Changed

- Corrected the target from `udm=9` to Google's Forums vertical, `udm=18`.
- Replaced Playwright-through-`GOOGLE_SERP` with the proxy group's required HTTP transport.
- Retained fingerprint-consistent Playwright sessions for direct, Residential, and custom proxy configurations.
- Added single and fair concurrent batch modes, bounded five-page pagination, platform filters, exact phrase/exclusions, date filters, SafeSearch, and localization.
- Added stable URL-based IDs, canonical redirect handling, global deduplication, and interleaved query allocation.
- Added safe resolution for Google's August 2026 opaque `/goto` result links and a labeled, established-forum-domain web fallback when `GOOGLE_SERP` omits the `udm=18` cards.
- Rebuilt the output as a truthful 50-field contract covering public thread identity, discovery mode, source, community, snippet, engagement, date, media, and query context.
- Added typed count parsing, relative-date normalization, recursive empty omission, status/content validation, explicit no-results handling, and first-challenge fail-closed behavior.
- Removed the unsafe helper that read local Apify authentication files, the fabricated author URLs and unsupported sticky/locked/solved fields, and unused generated routes/errors/filters.
- Added output/run-summary schema, QA inputs, dataset audit tooling, documentation, exact dependencies, security overrides, and seven tests.

### \[2.0.0] - 2026-06-12

- Expanded the legacy schema and added local validation files.

### \[1.0.0] - 2025-05-20

- Initial browser-based release.