Yes, Google Custom Search has now replaced the old Search API, but you can still use Google Custom Search to search the entire web, although the steps are not obvious from the Custom Search setup.
To create a Google Custom Search engine that searches the entire web:
- From the Google Custom Search homepage ( http://www.google.com/cse/ ), click Create a Custom Search Engine.
- Type a name and description for your search engine.
- Under Define your search engine, in the Sites to Search box, enter at least one valid URL (For now, just put www.anyurl.com to get past this screen. More on this later ).
- Select the CSE edition you want and accept the Terms of Service, then click Next. Select the layout option you want, and then click Next.
- Click any of the links under the Next steps section to navigate to your Control panel.
- In the left-hand menu, under Control Panel, click Basics.
- In the Search Preferences section, select Search the entire web but emphasize included sites.
- Click Save Changes.
- In the left-hand menu, under Control Panel, click Sites.
- Delete the site you entered during the initial setup process.
Now your custom search engine will search the entire web.
Pricing
- Google Custom Search gives you 100 queries per day for free.
- After that you pay $5 per 1000 queries.
- There is a maximum of 10,000 queries per day.
Source: https://developers.google.com/custom-search/json-api/v1/overview#Pricing
- The search quality is much lower than normal Google search (no synonyms, "intelligence" etc.)
- It seems that Google is even planning to shut down this service completely.