NAME

Google::Search - Interface to the Google AJAX Search API and suggestion API (DEPRECATED)

VERSION

version 0.028

SYNOPSIS

NOTE: The Google AJAX Search API has been deprecated: <http://developers.google.com/web-search/docs/>

    my $search = Google::Search->Web( query => "rock" );
    while ( my $result = $search->next ) {
        print $result->rank, " ", $result->uri, "\n";
    }

You can also use the single-argument-style invocation:

    Google::Search->Web( "query" )

The following kinds of searches are supported

    Google::Search->Local( ... )
    Google::Search->Video( ... )
    Google::Search->Blog( ... )
    Google::Search->News( ... )
    Google::Search->Image( ... )
    Google::Search->Patent( ... )

You can also take advantage of each service's specialized interface

    # The search below specifies the latitude and longitude:
    $search = Google::Search->Local( query => { q => "rock", sll => "33.823230,-116.512110" }, ... );

    my $result = $search->first;
    print $result->streetAddress, "\n";

You can supply an API key and referrer (referer) if you have them

    my $key = ... # This should be a valid API key, gotten from:
                  # http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/signup.html

    my $referrer = "http://example.com/" # This should be a valid referer for the above key

    $search = Google::Search->Web(
        key => $key, referrer => $referrer, # "referer =>" Would work too
        query => { q => "rock", sll => "33.823230,-116.512110" }
    );

Get suggestions from the unofficial Google suggestion API using "suggest"

    my $suggestions = Google::Search->suggest( $term )

DESCRIPTION

NOTE: The Google AJAX Search API has been deprecated: <http://developers.google.com/web-search/docs/>

Google::Search is an interface to the Google AJAX Search API (<http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/>).

Currently, their API looks like it will fetch you the top 64 results for your search query.

You may want to sign up for an API key, but it is not required. You can do so here: <http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/signup.html>

Shortcut usage for a specific service

Google::Search->Web

Google::Search->Local

Google::Search->Video

Google::Search->Blog

Google::Search->News

Google::Search->Book

Google::Search->Image

Google::Search->Patent

USAGE

Google::Search->new( ... )

Prepare a new search object (handle)

You can configure the search by passing the following to "new":

    query           The search phrase to submit to Google
                    Optionally, this can also be a hash of parameters to submit. You can
                    use the hash form to take advantage of each service's varying interface.
                    Make sure to at least include a "q" parameter with your search

    service         The service to search under. This can be any of: web,
                    local, video, blog, news, book, image, patent

    start           Optional. Start searching from "start" rank instead of 0.
                    Google::Search will skip fetching unnecessary results

    key             Optional. Your Google AJAX Search API key (see Description)

    referrer        Optional. A referrer that is valid for the above key
                    For legacy purposes, "referer" is an acceptable spelling

Both "query" and "service" are required

$search->first

Returns a Google::Search::Result representing the first result in the search, if any.

Returns undef if nothing was found

$search->next

An iterator for $search. Will the return the next result each time it is called, and undef when there are no more results.

Returns a Google::Search::Result

Returns undef if nothing was found

$search->result( <rank> )

Returns a Google::Search::Result corresponding to the result at <rank>

These are equivalent:

    $search->result( 0 )

    $search->first

$search->all

Returns Google::Search::Result list which includes every result Google has returned for the query

In scalar context an array reference is returned, a list otherwise

An empty list is returned if nothing was found

$search->match( <code> )

Returns a Google::Search::Result list

This method will iterate through each result in the search, passing the result to <code> as the first argument. If <code> returns true, then the result will be included in the returned list

In scalar context this method returns the number of matches

$search->first_match( <code> )

Returns a Google::Search::Result that is the first to match <code>

This method will iterate through each result in the search, passing the result to <code> as the first argument. If <code> returns true, then the result will be returned and iteration will stop.

$search->error

Returns a Google::Search::Error if there was an error with the last search

If you receive undef from a result access then you can use this routine to see if there was a problem

    warn $search->error->reason;

    warn $search->error->http_response->as_string;

    # Etc, etc.

This will return undef if no error was encountered

Google::Search->suggest( $term, ... )

Return a nested array from the Google auto-complete suggestion service. Each inner array consists of: the suggestion, the number of results, and the rank of the suggestion:

    my $suggestions = Google::Search->suggest( 'monkey' )
    print $suggestions->[0][0] # "monkey bread recipe"
    print $suggestions->[0][1] # "413,000 results"
    print $suggestions->[0][2] # 0

    for my $suggestion ( @$suggestions ) {
        ...
    }

To override the language (or any query parameter or to add in your own parameters), pass in an array:

    # Get the results back in German (de)
    Google::Search->suggest( [ hl => 'de' ], 'monkey' )

To alter the URI hostname/path or to give a custom user agent, pass in a hash:

    Google::Search->suggest( [ hl => 'de' ], 'monkey', {
        host => 'clients1.google.de',
        agent => 'Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1)'
    } )

The passing order of the array, hash, and string does not matter

AUTHOR

Robert Krimen <robertkrimen@gmail.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.