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Geekpedia » C# Tutorials » Google Search using Web Service

Google Search using Web Service

Tutorial that shows how to build a C# application that can search the web using Google's Web Service.

On Saturday, July 10th 2004 at 08:49 AM

By Andrew Pociu (View Profile)

(Rated 4.6 with 16 votes)

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With the Google Web APIs service, software developers can query more than 4 billion web pages directly from their own computer programs. Google uses the SOAP and WSDL standards so a developer can program in his or her favorite environment - such as Java, Perl, or Visual Studio .NET.
Google Web APIs

In this tutorial we'll make a little application that can search the web with Google. It will use of course a web service provided by Google. More information about it can be found at http://www.google.com/apis/.

Before we start you need to have an account at Google because using that account you can get the license key (don't worry, it's free) that will allow you to do 1000 queries per day. So register at https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount and after you confirm using the link in the email they sent you go to http://api.google.com/createkey and you'll get another email from Google containing the key you need.

There's no need to download the project but if you want, go ahead:

GoogleWS.zip

Now create a new Windows Application project named GoogleWS and add four TextBoxes with the followin names:

txtKey (where you'll enter you license key, you can set the Text property to your license key now so you don't have to enter it every time you run the application)

txtNum (where the number of results will be displayed)

txtSearch (where the string you want to search will be entered)

txtResult (set the Multiline property of this one to True and ScrollBars property to Both because this is where will display the result)

Further add a ComboBox named cmbPage with the property DropDownStyle set to DropDownList and a Button named btnSearch.

Finaly add two CheckBoxes named chkFilter and chkSafeSearch.

With some labels added this is how the form looks like:

Now let's add a WebReference to Google's WebService. Go ahead, right click the project in Solution Explorer and select Add Web Reference. And this is the URL you need to enter, that points to Google's WebService: http://api.google.com/GoogleSearch.wsdl

The connection is added to Solution Explorer, but let's rename it to google:

First let's see the code:

public void search(int start)

{

   // Set the mouse pointer to Busy

   this.Cursor = Cursors.WaitCursor;

   // Clear for any earlier results

   txtResult.Clear();

   // Create new GoogleSearchService

   google.GoogleSearchService GSS = new google.GoogleSearchService();

   // Create new GoogleSearchResult

   google.GoogleSearchResult GSR = GSS.doGoogleSearch(txtKey.Text, txtSearch.Text, start, 10, chkFilter.Checked, "",    chkSafeSearch.Checked, "", "", "");

   // Store the number of total results

   int resNum = GSR.estimatedTotalResultsCount;

   // resNumX will be used for looping

   int resNumX = 0;

   // Show the number of results

   txtNum.Text = resNum.ToString();

   // Loop through all the results

   while(resNum > resNumX)

   {

      // Add them to the combo box

      cmbPage.Items.Add(resNumX.ToString() + " - " + (resNumX+10));

      // Increment with 10 because we display 10 items / page

      resNumX = resNumX + 10;

   }

   // Select the coresponding item

   cmbPage.SelectedIndex = (start / 10);

   // Word suggestion

   string suggested = GSS.doSpellingSuggestion(txtKey.Text, txtSearch.Text);

   // If there is a suggestion

   if(suggested != null)

   {

      // Show it

      txtResult.AppendText("Did you mean: " + suggested + "\r\n\r\n");

   }

   // Loop through the elements

   foreach(google.ResultElement result in GSR.resultElements)

   {

      // Show the title

      txtResult.AppendText(result.title + "\r\n");

      // The URL

      txtResult.AppendText(result.URL + "\r\n");

      // And the summary

      txtResult.AppendText(result.summary + "\r\n");

   }

   // Set the selection start to 0...

   txtResult.SelectionStart = 0;

   // so we can scroll to the top of the textBox

   txtResult.ScrollToCaret();

   // Set the cursor back

   this.Cursor = Cursors.Default;

}

private void btnSearch_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

{

   // Do the search starting from item 0

   search(0);

}

private void cmbPage_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

{

   // If the index is changed start from the item

   // equal with the selected item in the combo box

   search((cmbPage.SelectedIndex * 10));

}

The most important method that we used is the following:

doGoogleSearch(string key, string q, int start, int maxResults, bool filter, string restrict, bool safeSearch, string lr, string ie, string oe)

Compile it and give it a try. Don't enter a very common keyword like programming or Microsoft because it will take longer than you think. The name geekpedia isn't so well known

, here's the result:

Further you should download the Google Web APIs Developer Kit and check Google Web APIs Reference to add more functionality to the program.

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Current Comments

by Kelvin Y on Wednesday, December 15th 2004 at 08:47 AM

Brilliant example of using a real-world web service. There is a minor bug in the code. There is an event loop caused by cmbPage_SelectedIndexChanged which makes the combo list grow each time a new selection is made. It takes a little long to describe the fix but I can do it if necessary.

by thanh on Saturday, July 9th 2005 at 11:12 PM

Excellent. Thanks for yor sharing

by J.Celmer on Tuesday, March 7th 2006 at 03:05 PM

I've got some problem with this example, namingly the application works very very slowly and eventually an error pops up:
Exception System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException was thrown in debugee:
InvalidArgument=Value of '0' is not valid for 'SelectedIndex'.

set_SelectedIndex()
search() - c:\.......\Project\GoogleWS\GoogleWS\Form1.cs:237,4
btnSearch_Click() - c:\........\Project\GoogleWS\GoogleWS\Form1.cs:266,4
OnClick()
OnClick()
OnMouseUp()
WmMouseUp()
WndProc()
WndProc()
WndProc()
OnMessage()
WndProc()
DebuggableCallback()
System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.IMsoComponentManager.FPushMessageLoop()
RunMessageLoopInner()
RunMessageLoop()
Run()
Main() - c:\.........\GoogleWS\GoogleWS\Form1.cs:208,4.

Only from time to time it succeds in finding search results.

by RameshPrasad on Thursday, September 14th 2006 at 02:22 PM

the application works very very slowly and eventually an error like this show

ContextSwithDeadloack was dedected every time

The CLR has been unable to transition from COM context 0x1a09c8 to COM context 0x1a0b38 for 60 seconds. The thread that owns the destination context/apartment is most likely either doing a non pumping

what iam do please give me valueble suggestion

by Umesh on Thursday, May 15th 2008 at 07:56 AM

I Sign-up for an AJAX Search API Key and get the key and try to search with this example but i got error like this "Invalid Key".
Even i tried with 2 keys ( which are generated by 2 different mail Id).

by Umesh on Friday, May 16th 2008 at 12:47 AM

Actually when i generate the API key that time i given my web site name is "www.google.com" . The reason behind this is i want this serial key for windows application (example given on site) .
Then i found it is for web application .I have to give url of my web application in my site text box.
Please advice me if i do any wrong and can any one advice me how will i used the google api for windows application.

by Developer on Friday, September 17th 2010 at 01:09 AM

hello,

First of all many many thanks for this guidance..

I am Dot net Developer and I have to create application which can fetch suggested keywords from google and yahoo engine.

I download your demo but I am not getting key to get result from this example.
http://api.google.com/createkey is not working.. How can I generate key to test this demo? Each time I have to enter key? When i deploy the application in client machine, does used also need any type of key to use google API?

Please reply me as soon as possible because I have to start may project urgently..

Really thanks in advance..

by Russell on Wednesday, February 16th 2011 at 09:32 PM

@Developer, This WSDL Example is obsolete and will no longer be used by Google Services. Try looking at there examples for Google.Gdata.Client.

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by Web design Tucson on Sunday, November 6th 2011 at 10:49 AM

I find this procedure quite impressive, for those who look for creating their own small filter tool to refine queries on Google. I believe this could be really useful for people who write academic work, for instance, because they need to run research on isolated and refined fields. I still think about how this could work for me if I own, let`s say, a small online business. I would still be interested for visitors to use the giant Google in order to find my websites.

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I'm a big fan of web services because they automate things and as a programmer I need to find shortcuts every time so I can deliver the project by its deadline. Definitely something worth looking at.

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