[java] How can you search Google Programmatically Java API

Does anyone know if and how it is possible to search Google programmatically - especially if there is a Java API for it?

To search google using API you should use Google Custom Search, scraping web page is not allowed

In java you can use CustomSearch API Client Library for Java

The maven dependency is:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.apis</groupId>
    <artifactId>google-api-services-customsearch</artifactId>
    <version>v1-rev57-1.23.0</version>
</dependency> 

Example code searching using Google CustomSearch API Client Library

public static void main(String[] args) throws GeneralSecurityException, IOException {

    String searchQuery = "test"; //The query to search
    String cx = "002845322276752338984:vxqzfa86nqc"; //Your search engine

    //Instance Customsearch
    Customsearch cs = new Customsearch.Builder(GoogleNetHttpTransport.newTrustedTransport(), JacksonFactory.getDefaultInstance(), null) 
                   .setApplicationName("MyApplication") 
                   .setGoogleClientRequestInitializer(new CustomsearchRequestInitializer("your api key")) 
                   .build();

    //Set search parameter
    Customsearch.Cse.List list = cs.cse().list(searchQuery).setCx(cx); 

    //Execute search
    Search result = list.execute();
    if (result.getItems()!=null){
        for (Result ri : result.getItems()) {
            //Get title, link, body etc. from search
            System.out.println(ri.getTitle() + ", " + ri.getLink());
        }
    }

}

As you can see you will need to request an api key and setup an own search engine id, cx.

Note that you can search the whole web by selecting "Search entire web" on basic tab settings during setup of cx, but results will not be exactly the same as a normal browser google search.

Currently (date of answer) you get 100 api calls per day for free, then google like to share your profit.

Indeed there is an API to search google programmatically. The API is called google custom search. For using this API, you will need an Google Developer API key and a cx key. A simple procedure for accessing google search from java program is explained in my blog.

Now dead, here is the Wayback Machine link.

As an alternative to BalusC answer as it has been deprecated and you have to use proxies, you can use this package. Code sample:

Map<String, String> parameter = new HashMap<>();
parameter.put("q", "Coffee");
parameter.put("location", "Portland");
GoogleSearchResults serp = new GoogleSearchResults(parameter);

JsonObject data = serp.getJson();
JsonArray results = (JsonArray) data.get("organic_results");
JsonObject first_result = results.get(0).getAsJsonObject();
System.out.println("first coffee: " + first_result.get("title").getAsString());

Library on GitHub

Just an alternative. Searching google and parsing the results can also be done in a generic way using any HTML Parser such as Jsoup in Java. Following is the link to the mentioned example.

Update: Link no longer works. Please look for any other example. https://www.codeforeach.com/java/example-how-to-search-google-using-java

Google TOS have been relaxed a bit in April 2014. Now it states:

"Don’t misuse our Services. For example, don’t interfere with our Services or try to access them using a method other than the interface and the instructions that we provide."

So the passage about "automated means" and scripts is gone now. It evidently still is not the desired (by google) way of accessing their services, but I think it is now formally open to interpretation of what exactly an "interface" is and whether it makes any difference as of how exactly returned HTML is processed (rendered or parsed). Anyhow, I have written a Java convenience library and it is up to you to decide whether to use it or not:

https://github.com/afedulov/google-web-search

In the Terms of Service of google we can read:

5.3 You agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the Services by any means other than through the interface that is provided by Google, unless you have been specifically allowed to do so in a separate agreement with Google. You specifically agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the Services through any automated means (including use of scripts or web crawlers) and shall ensure that you comply with the instructions set out in any robots.txt file present on the Services.

So I guess the answer is No. More over the SOAP API is no longer available

In light of those TOS alterations last year we built an API that gives access to Google's search. It was for our own use only but after some requests we decided to open it up. We're planning to add additional search engines in the future!

Should anyone be looking for an easy way to implement / acquire search results you are free to sign up and give the REST API a try: https://searchapi.io

It returns JSON results and should be easy enough to implement with the detailed docs.

It's a shame that Bing and Yahoo are miles ahead on Google in this regard. Their APIs aren't cheap, but at least available.