As promised in 2010, the Google Web Search API is being put out to pasture. The service will cease operations on September 29th, 2014.
Google is suggesting that those using the Web Search API check out the Custom Search API. There are two editions of Google Custom Search: Custom Search Engine (basic edition) and Google Site Search (business edition).
Google Site Search provides the ability to create search engines that do not include ads, remove Google branding (if desired). In addition, Google Site Search customers can retrieve results in XML, to provide more control over how the results are presented to users.
After creating a Custom Search Engine, developers can use a default page hosted by Google to show results to the user, or can embed search functionality directly in a website. The following resources are available to developers who want more control over creating search engines and customizing the appearance of search results:
- The Custom Search Control API provides the ability to embed Google Custom Search element in web pages and other web applications using JavaScript.
- The JSON/Atom API lets developers create websites and programs to retrieve and display search results from Google Custom Search programmatically. With this API, developers can use RESTful requests to get search results in either JSON or Atom format.
- The XML API use a client application of a developer’s choice to retrieve a list of custom search engines (CSE) under an account, create and delete custom search engines, and retrieve code for a search box, among other things. It is available to Google Site Search customers only.