How can I retrieve a search snippets from google?

Question

Hi, everyone!

I'm working with a simple app, that allows user to enter some text, then delegates it to the google.com, searching for this text. Something like a Google search bar in Firefox.

In Google toolbar, there is a feature: when you start typing the text, some snippets appear (sorted, as far as I understand, by the number of search results), that allow you to enter your text quickly by choosing one of the snippets.

My question is how can I retrieve these snippets from Google? Does Google provide any API for doing it? I've googled this question, but Google seems to provide a search API, and allows to retrieve search results, not snippets.

p.s. I would appreciate any links, related to the question, or tutorials, or code snippets or something. I am writing a simple WinAPI application in C/C++. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Looks like I've got it!

Google provide a simple, but handy REST API. You form a special URL, then send an HTTP request and receive a formatted list of necessary search suggestions. Looks like Google supports many formatting options, for example JSON and XML.

see more info on: http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2006-08-17-n22.html