2019 Note: This project is not actively maintained, parsing logic on Google search results has likely changed

Google Search Results REST API (Implemented in AKKA-HTTP)

This application exposes an API to retrieve a JSON-formatted search result based on a supplied query string. This is achieved through making a HTTP request to Google for the supplied query and then parsing the outgoing HTML with the JSoup parsing framework.

To run locally

This application is currently configured to run on port 8001. To run this application you need SBT installed, and then when within the directory of the repository enter the following command: sbt run

To test locally

To test this application an installation of sbt is also required. From the shell you then will run the following command: sbt test

To access

This application is deployed with Heroku. Since the API only supports GET requests you can hit it directly in the browser at the documented endpoints through the following address: https://fierce-oasis-45476.herokuapp.com

(e.g https://thawing-badlands-55815.herokuapp.com/query/hello%20world )

Note: Due to the way in which Heroku availability zones work, there's a limited guarantee that the results the heroku server returns will reflect what you would get back hitting the requestUrl through your browser

API

GET /query/:q

Takes in a string query which is then used for a Google search. It then sends back a response with information about the second search result retrieved.

This responses with a JSON document with the following fields:

Field name	Description
uri	The URL associated with the search result*
title	The title/H3 tag associated with the search result*
description	The paragraph description associated with the search result*
requestUrl	The URL the application is using to make the search request (useful for verifying/testing the validity of the result back

*indicates this information is obtained directly from the scraping of the retrieved Google search results page

Example response:

{
  "uri": "http://example.com/",
  "title": "Welcome to Example.com!",
  "description": "Example.com contains all things relevant to Examples",
  "requestUrl": "http://google.co.uk/search?q=example"
}

Error codes:

• 503 ServiceUnavailable when Google is returning a non-200 response to the search request, or when the formatting of its search result page has changed