GAPIS

A standalone Google search application for Windows.

A lot of the hacks in this book have been either browser-based or somehow integrated into other applications. There haven’t been too many standalone applications built to take advantage of Google’s search capacity. GAPIS (Google API Searching in an Application) is a small standalone application that performs Google searches on its own (and it can also be set to browser searching).

GAPIS (http://www.searchenginelab.com/common/products/gapis/) is available for free download either as an application executable, complete with uninstaller, or as an plain executable file with no uninstaller. GAPIS runs only under Windows 95 or later. Because it uses the Google Web API, you’ll need your own Google API developer’s key to run your queries.

The GAPIS interface is very simple, providing a basic window for searching and another screen for options.

There’s a field to enter your developer’s key alongside the query box. A pulldown box allows you to access previous queries. You have two viewing options: regular mode, which provides information about search results that you’d usually see from a Google search, and spreadsheet mode, which provides information in a table format like you’d see in a spreadsheet. Figure 1-19 illustrates the GAPIS interface.

The GAPIS interface

Figure 1-19. The GAPIS interface

Options

The Options screen allows you to set several search parameters, including SafeSearch filtering, filtering similar results, and the maximum number of results returned. (GAPIS will return up to 30 results.) Figure 1-20 shows the Options page.

The GAPIS Options page

Figure 1-20. The GAPIS Options page

Searching

Once you run a search, GAPIS will return the list of results on the main page in the format you specify (regular or spreadsheet mode, shown in Figure 1-21).

GAPIS results in spreadsheet mode

Figure 1-21. GAPIS results in spreadsheet mode

To open an entry in your web browser, double-click on it. To go directly to a web search in the browser (if you want more than 30 results, for example), click on the Search In Browser button.

If you need to create a set of your favorite searches, with more of an eye toward an overview of the results instead of a deep browsing, GAPIS is a quick and handy tool.

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