Search queries are growing at their fastest rate in five years, Google parent Alphabet said in its earnings report last week. However, Google's Search revenue growth slowed to 12 percent year over year in the third quarter, down from roughly 17 percent in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, growth in paid clicks - clicks on ads that generate revenue for Google - slowed from 13 percent to 8 percent.
That's still substantial growth, but not the direction investors were hoping for from a company planning to spend about $200 billion this year on infrastructure, largely to support AI. Alphabet shares have fallen about 14 percent since it reported e …