Once again, without knowing how their application is working internally, I can't really comment on whether or not they're violating any TOS. However, after glancing through their information, I find the claims that they can provide accurate ranking information and trends without violating any TOS rather suspect for a couple of reasons.
First, if they are indeed using the Google Search API, they will find that the search results are often not consistent with those returned by google.com. This has been noted on the issue tracker for a very long time, but I must say that I suspect it is a "feature" of the API which is specifically intended to thwart efforts to use it for SEO purposes. And second, if they are tracking data over time, as they note that they are, then they are either sitting there manually running queries on a regular basis, or they are running cron jobs of some sort. Since the first option here seems rather impractical (they claim to have over 95,000 registered users), I suspect that they are utilizing cron jobs. Unfortunately, the TOS for both google.com and the Google Search API prohibit the use of applications which make automated queries (e.g., robots, spiders, etc.). This would include applications which are automatically triggered by cron jobs. I would also note that Google is not alone in making such restrictions. The TOS for Yahoo!'s BOSS API specifically state that you will not (and will not permit your users to) "reverse engineer or otherwise discover the architecture and technology behind Yahoo!’s web crawl, index, search, ranking systems, or any other aspect of the Web Search Results or Services;" and/or "access or use the Services for the purpose of aggregating, analyzing, extracting, or repurposing any Yahoo! branded properties" (4.b). In my admittedly non-expert legal assessment, I would say that pretty much nixes SEO. And the Bing's TOS could be read to say that you can only retrieve and display search results to an end user, which would preclude any analysis necessary for SEO applications. So, again, unfortunately, I don't see how you can build a practical SEO application while still abiding by the TOS. Jeremy R. Geerdes Effective website design & development Des Moines, IA For more information or a project quote: http://jgeerdes.home.mchsi.com [email protected] If you're in the Des Moines, IA, area, check out Debra Heights Wesleyan Church! On Jul 15, 2010, at 1:47 AM, Khan Tanveer wrote: > Hi Jeremy, > > Thanks a lot for your constant guidance, I just would like to share some > thing. > > There is a website that develop a keyword ranking tool and they claim that > they don't break any TOS of any search engine, they achieve their objective > by using API's provided by Search Engine. > > The URL of the web site is http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/ > > May you please guide me further more, if you don't mind. > > > On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 9:51 PM, Jeremy Geerdes <[email protected]> wrote: > Without inside knowledge of how those sites are working, I would guess that > the vast majority of them are violating TOS at some point, whether they know > it or not. > > > Jeremy R. Geerdes > Effective website design & development > Des Moines, IA > > For more information or a project quote: > http://jgeerdes.home.mchsi.com > [email protected] > > If you're in the Des Moines, IA, area, check out Debra Heights Wesleyan > Church! > > On Jul 13, 2010, at 11:11 AM, Khan Tanveer wrote: > >> Hi Jeremy, >> >> There are lots of paid and unpaid SEO tool in which any body can put their >> keywords and domain name so the Tool will display the match URL and rank of >> the URL in google natural search, so i guess they guys may have some legal >> mechanism since they hit google through some spider. >> >> Please guide. >> >> On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 9:06 PM, Jeremy Geerdes <[email protected]> wrote: >> To my knowledge, there is no such service. >> >> >>> On Jul 12, 2010 9:06 AM, "Khan Tanveer" <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> Hi Jeremy, >>> >>> Thanks a lot for quick response. >>> >>> Can you tell me is there any paid or unpaid ways from which i can request >>> google for a search query and get the results. >>> >>> Please, please let me know if is there any such type API. >>> >>> On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 6:16 PM, Jeremy Geerdes <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> > >>> > Unfortunately, the TOS on both google.com and the Search API prohibit the >>> > use of robots, spiders... >>> >>> >>> -- >>> >>> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> > "Google AJAX APIs" grou... >>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "Google AJAX APIs" gr... >>> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Google AJAX APIs" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/google-ajax-search-api?hl=en. >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Google AJAX APIs" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/google-ajax-search-api?hl=en. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Google AJAX APIs" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/google-ajax-search-api?hl=en. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Google AJAX APIs" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/google-ajax-search-api?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google AJAX APIs" group. 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