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From: TheLittleTubCheese on 2 Jul 2010 00:56
July 1, 2010: Here we go again...

We regret to announce that our Google scraper may have to be
permanently retired, thanks to a change at Google. It depends on
whether Google is willing to restore the simple interface that we've
been scraping since Scroogle started five years ago. Actually, we've
been using that interface for scraping since Google-Watch.org began in
2002.

This interface (here's a sample from years ago) was remarkably stable
all that time. During those eight years there were only about five
changes that required some programming adjustments. Also, this
interface was available at every Google data center in exactly the
same form, which allowed us to use 700 IP addresses for Google.

That interface was at www.google.com/ie but on May 10, 2010 they took
it down and inserted a redirect to /toolbar/ie8/sidebar.html. It used
to have a search box, and the results it showed were generic during
that entire time. It didn't show the snippets unless you moused-over
the links it produced (they were there for our program, so that was
okay), and it has never had any ads. Our impression was that these
results were from Google's basic algorithms, and that extra features
and ads were added on top of these generic results. Three years ago
Google launched "Universal Search," which meant that they added
results from other Google services on their pages. But this simple
interface we were using was not affected at all.

It is not possible to continue Scroogle unless we have a simple
interface that is stable. Google's main consumer-oriented interface
that they want everyone to use is too complex, too bloated, and
changes too frequently, to make our scraping operation possible.

After a lot of suggestions from Scroogle users, and a fair amount of
publicity, we found a fix and Scroogle was back in 24 hours. This fix
was to insert an extra parameter, &output=ie, into the search terms
that were relayed to Google. The extra parameter recovered the same
interface that we thought was gone forever.

Now it seems like it actually might be gone forever. Late on June 30,
2010, the results produced while using this parameter began to shift
to the usual busy Google interface with ads and a left-margin sidebar.
Scroogle users saw a Scroogle page that said, "Google returned no
results for this search," when in fact Google returned results but our
scraper was unable to deal with them. Over the next few days we will
attempt to contact Google and determine whether the old interface is
gone as a matter of policy at Google, or if they simply have it hidden
somewhere and will tell us where it is so that we can continue to use
it.

Thank you for your support during these past five years. Check back in
a week or so; if we don't hear from Google by next week, I think we
can all assume that Google would rather have no Scroogle, and no
privacy for searchers.

— Daniel Brandt, Public Information Research, scroogle AT lavabit.com

From: Camembert on 2 Jul 2010 22:35
TheLittleTubCheese wrote:

[snip sad story of Scroogle being screwed by Google]

Any bets on what will happen?


Microsoft did a similar thing with their Hotmail. Constant tweaks and
adjustments to the login interface over a period of time which most
browsers handle OK caused major problems with programs like Freepops
which use logon scripts and require precise responses at each step.

MS/Google: "You MUST see all our ads".


-Camembert

From: AlleyCat on 3 Jul 2010 02:33
In article <19169d8e1b98684f6f56a7d360bb3485(a)msgid.frell.theremailer.net>,
email.franklin(a)yahoo.com.sg says...

Someone gave me (us) a few SSL search engines last time this happened. I didn't save those
addresses... could "you" please post them and other search engines that are NOT Google, Yahoo or
MSN related, please. Thanks.

Al
From: John Corliss on 3 Jul 2010 04:20
AlleyCat wrote:
> In article<19169d8e1b98684f6f56a7d360bb3485(a)msgid.frell.theremailer.net>,
> email.franklin(a)yahoo.com.sg says...
>
> Someone gave me (us) a few SSL search engines last time this happened. I didn't save those
> addresses... could "you" please post them and other search engines that are NOT Google, Yahoo or
> MSN related, please. Thanks.

Too bad, but it looks like this is true:

http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi

I'd like to see a list of those other search engines myself.

--
John Corliss BS206. Because of all the Googlespam, I block all posts
sent through Google Groups. I also block as many posts from anonymous
remailers (for example, usenet4all.se, x-privat.org, dizum.com,
tioat.net, frell.theremailer.net) as possible due to forgeries posted
through them.

No ad, CD, commercial, cripple, demo, nag, share, spy, time-limited,
trial or web wares OR warez for me, please. Adobe Flash sucks, DivX rules.

"First thing we do, we kill all the advertisers..."
From: za kAT on 3 Jul 2010 05:24
On Sat, 03 Jul 2010 04:35:21 +0200, Camembert wrote:

> TheLittleTubCheese wrote:
>
> [snip sad story of Scroogle being screwed by Google]

If you are going to criticise Google, then make a legitimate point.

Protecting their revenue streams isn't one.

--
zakAT(a)pooh.the.cat - Sergeant Tech-Com, DN38416.
Assigned to protect you. You've been targeted for denigration!
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