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Google Releases Web APIs

Posted by Hemos on from the developing-with-google dept.

skunkeh writes "Google have released the first beta of their Web APIs package. Used in conjunction with a free license key this SOAP based web service allows developers to execute up to 1000 automated queries a day, but is currently available for non-commercial use only. The download comes with Java and .NET code examples and includes a WSDL description for use with other SOAP supporting languages." There's also a write up about uses on Userland.

9 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Web API Implementations by skunkeh · · Score: 5, Informative
    A list of implementations of the Google Web API can be found on SoapWare:

    http://www.soapware.org/directory/4/services/googl eApi/implementations

    At the time of posting languages catered for were for AppleScript, Frontier/Radio, Perl, Python and Visual Basic. I've written a basic implementation in PHP which has yet to be added to the list - you can find it here:

    http://toys.incutio.com/php/php-google-web-api.htm l

    This is a very cool toy.

  2. This story refers to by sydneyfong · · Score: 3, Informative

    The old one here - "Google to Offer API"

    --
    Don't quote me on this.
  3. Re:A great corporate move by skunkeh · · Score: 5, Informative
    From the FAQ:
    2. Does Google have any plans to sell Google Web APIs as a service?

    Not at this time.

    Which seems very strange seeing as this could be a huge money spinner. Surely a license system which allows commercial users to subscribe to a certain number of queries a day, or just buy queries in bulk would generate a lot of income for Google and provide a valuable service to the internet business community at large.
  4. Example of use by dtr20 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I just had a go with this and some example output is displayed below. Basically you can do a search of their main web pages, request a cached page or use their spellchecker.

    Dave

    $ java -cp googleapi.jar com.google.soap.search.GoogleAPIDemo XXmykeyXX search "british empire"
    Parameters:
    Client key = XXmykeyXX
    Directive = search
    Args = british empire
    Google Search Results:
    ======================
    {
    TM = 0.117071
    Q = "british empire"
    CT = ""
    TT = ""
    CATs =
    {
    {SE="", FVN="Top/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Society_an d_Culture/History"}
    }
    Start Index = 1
    End Index = 10
    Estimated Total Results Number = 688000
    Document Filtering = true
    Estimate Correct = false
    Rs =
    {

    [
    URL = "http://www.btinternet.com/~britishempire/empire/e mpire.htm"
    Title = "The British Empire"
    Snippet = "| Introduction | Articles | Biographies | Timelines
    | Discussio
    n | Map Room | Armed Forces | Art ... "
    Directory Category = {SE="", FVN=""}
    Directory Title = ""
    Summary = ""
    Cached Size = "5k"
    Related information present = true
    Host Name = ""
    ],
    ...

  5. O'Reilly has some good code and stuff by bodin · · Score: 5, Informative

    O'Reilly has a good article here with some code as well in both Java and Perl.

    http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/weblog/view/wlg/1283

  6. Re:Google groups may require a Google account.. by AVee · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well this is what it told me:
    In the future, your Google account will enable login access to all Google services, including Google Groups posting, Google AdWords, the Google Store, the Google in Your Language program, and more.
    (My emphasis)

    Notice the difference?

  7. Re:AppleScript for Google API by bodin · · Score: 4, Informative

    And the URL was broken. Here is the right one:

    http://radio.weblogs.com/0100012/stories/2002/04/1 1/applescriptForGoogleApi.html

  8. Re:Anyone care to explain... by Software · · Score: 5, Informative

    OK, your script parses Google's HTML output today, but what about a year from now when Google changes its output, to say, XHTML or plain text or something. How well will your script work then? Although the Google API could change tommorow like some companies' , in general APIs are more stable. I haven't looked at their API, but I'm guessing it's also easier to develop against their API, and it should be less processor- and network-intensive.

  9. Re:Not needed by skunkeh · · Score: 3, Informative
    Legality for one thing:
    No Automated Querying

    You may not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system without express permission in advance from Google. Note that "sending automated queries" includes, among other things:

    • using any software which sends queries to Google to determine how a website or webpage "ranks" on Google for various queries;
    • "meta-searching" Google; and
    • performing "offline" searches on Google.
    It also stops your scripts from breaking every time Google redesign their results page.