Hi, I can not give any advice on Googles terms of service as I find them very vague and very open to interpretation at times but am sure they are worded that way as Googles lawyers know they can twist things to mean what ever they want if needed.
Like clearly addressing things like... "You agree that when using the Service, You will not, and will not permit your end users or other third parties to:" "use any robot, spider, site search/retrieval application,....." Yet they do not define their definitions of the terms (like in most legal contracts) of "robot" or "spider" etc so one (non-computer/ programming literate/savy user new to programming) may wonder if say a Cyborg like in the movie Terminator is OK just not a "robot" like the ones in Lost in Space et al, or a "spider" defined in most dictionary's (and schools) as meaning the little bug that one may find outside and makes cob webs. So I guess you need to make your own interpretations of things there (and/or seek legal counsel) but I have heard from some Googlers that automated requests (and data mining etc) are not permitted yet their legal teams find it impossible to just be clear about things. This IS allowed this IS NOT allowed and This means This etc. (they sure do when it comes to "Google Branding") Anyways, on to your other points... Does Google have any plans to augment this capability? They don't post their future plans publicly, but the API started as a max of 8 results with 4 ads and we have asked to get rid of ads and increase the number of returned results, so they did, then bumped it up to 32 results, now again to 64 results so they do listen and try to accommodate developers needs but have also made it clear they do not want to send a message to SEOs that using this service is OK for them so intentionally make it so it's not a practical solution for their needs. As for a paid service etc, several have asked for that also so you are not alone in your request so the best advice I can offer there is to make a feature request for it and I don't doubt you will get others voting for it. This is now how changes happen to the API. Just be as clear as possible in your requests. That post can be found here http://groups.google.com/group/Google-AJAX-Search-API/browse_thread/thread/3411ffc886a87221 As for the SOAP API, it is hard to say, as they phased it out for several reasons (you can watch a video here that mentions it http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/) and one point being although it did allow more results it had a cap of I believe 1000 requests per day and they stated many felt this became useless for sites that became popular or had lots of users and could only be used on a small scale. The AJAX API does not per se have a maximum # of querys, just a max number of results. As for alternatives, you may want to ask Jeremy as I believe he has mentioned the Yahoo BOSS API (or something like that) has like 1000 results or more and it may be better suited for your needs in that regard but I have not used it so I cant give any details on it. I can maybe give him a poke to chime in on this thread or you can easily chat with him in the IRC channel as he is there pretty much every day helping people and he is quite a source of information. You can find info on the AJAX API IRC channel here http://groups.google.com/group/Google-AJAX-Search-API/browse_thread/thread/ecf741a1a08c75ab (he can usually be identified as jgeerdes and is primarily there during days/afternoons etc USA time zones) If you see a member lisbakke this is a Googler that pops in quite often to check in on things and he may be able to help address some of your other questions more directly from Googles perspective. Hope that helps answer some things for you. Regards, Vision Jinx On Apr 15, 4:51 pm, thestauffer <[email protected]> wrote: > Thank you for your clarification. I am actually looking for automated > query and high-retrieval queries (if you consider more than 64 > responses high-retrieval). I hope that wanting to programmatically > interface with more than 64 responses doesn't make me some kind of > abuser. The previous search API that Google offered was much more in > the spirit of an open-source tool for web searching or seeding > searches for web material. > > Can anyone help me with a few more questions: > > 1. Does Google have any plans to augment this capability? I am fine > with registering with Google and having limits on usage over time. I > would also be fine with paying for the service (depending on the > price). > > 2. Will Google ever offer something in the vein of their previous > SOAP-based tool again? > > 3. Can anyone point me to a tool for programmatic queries that can > provide more than 64 responses? Any favorites? Yahoo SOAP? > Microsoft SOAP? > > Thanks in advance, > Chris > > PS. I didn't use javascript. I coded directly to the JONSObject > interface in Java and therefore did not look through all the > javascript class references. All I meant to say is that if Google's > AJAX API is meant for strictly low-retreival queries, it should say so > in the description of "What is the Google AJAX Search API?" or at > least somewhere in the developer's notes, not tucked away in the class > reference. That way, you would read it and say "this is exactly what > I need!", while I would read it and say "this may not be right for my > goals". > > On Apr 15, 9:50 am, "Vision Jinx (Guru)" <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi, > > > Just to address some of your questions/comments. > > > Re: "Google's AJAX API is useless for any significant search tasks > > because you are limited to 64 responses. This is not enough for even > > a basic retreival application." > > > Most people (meaning this APIs target audience) would refine their > > search query before reaching 64 results (or can click the "more > > results" link provided with the API), this API is not intended for > > SEO, automated queries, high retrieval applications or "significant > > search tasks". > > > Re: "What's more, there is no documentation of this limitation..." > > > Not true, the link is here > > >>http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/documentation/reference.html#_... > > > "Note: The maximum number of results pages is based on the type of > > searcher. Local search supports 4 pages (or a maximum of 32 total > > results) and the other searchers (Blog, Book, Image, News, Patent, > > Video, and Web) support 8 pages (for a maximum total of 64 results)." > > > Re: "Knowing now what I should have known when I researched this API, > > I would not have wasted my time." > > > You should have maybe started with the Terms of use and probably would > > have found that your app is more then likely in violation of Googles > > terms. This API is not intended for SEO, automated queries, results > > harvesting etc as it target audience is users not abusers. > > > I have developed many applications using Googles APIs and have not yet > > found this to be a limitation in any of them when using it as intended > > by Google. > > > Hope that answers your questions and comments. Additionally, you are > > welcome to stop by the IRC channel for this API and can ask for > > clarification if things seem vague in the API Docs or your looking for > > additional information (or just post in this group if you prefer). > > > Best regards, > > Vision Jinx > > > On Apr 14, 10:06 pm, thestauffer <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Google's AJAX API is useless for any significant search tasks because > > > you are limited to 64 responses. This is not enough for even a basic > > > retreival application. What's more, there is no documentation of this > > > limitation or any information on if it will ever be possible to ease > > > this limitation. > > > > Knowing now what I should have known when I researched this API, I > > > would not have wasted my time. > > > > Chris- Hide quoted text - > > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google AJAX APIs" group. 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