[Alfred 3] Google Inline Search (open URL + copy to clipboard)

[deanishe 1,397]

5 hours ago, bazerman said:

it seems like one of the most obvious and effective uses of alfred!

 

Sure. I have a bunch of workflows that scrape search results from sites (including Google), and I bet a lot of other users do, too.

 

But they're not the kind of workflow you release because (a) it's always against the terms of service, and (b) they tend to break a lot when the website changes, and nobody wants to have to fix a workflow every month for forever.

[vitor 876]

50 minutes ago, deanishe said:

I have a bunch of workflows that scrape search results from sites (including Google), and I bet a lot of other users do, too.

 

Can confirm. One of my most used Workflows—that I have little doubt would be popular—falls in that category. They do have an API, but their restrictions are absurd (geographically related, amongst others) and it doesn’t provide a specific and relevant bit of information. After a few versions, I’ve settled on one that uses their private API, which brings us to reason c for not sharing those Workflows: an uptick in usage might tip off the website owner which might block that method and possibly try to get you in trouble (i.e. reason a).

 

I do feel like most website owners would be like the one on the linked repository: allowing us to keep using our methods for personal sporadic use as long as we don’t distribute them. In the end, a handful of users doing so doesn’t hurt their bottom line, and the barrier to creation of the tool is a high enough deterrent for others.

[bazerman 4]

On 2/25/2020 at 10:53 PM, vitor said:

 

Can confirm. One of my most used Workflows—that I have little doubt would be popular—falls in that category. They do have an API, but their restrictions are absurd (geographically related, amongst others) and it doesn’t provide a specific and relevant bit of information. After a few versions, I’ve settled on one that uses their private API, which brings us to reason c for not sharing those Workflows: an uptick in usage might tip off the website owner which might block that method and possibly try to get you in trouble (i.e. reason a).

 

I do feel like most website owners would be like the one on the linked repository: allowing us to keep using our methods for personal sporadic use as long as we don’t distribute them. In the end, a handful of users doing so doesn’t hurt their bottom line, and the barrier to creation of the tool is a high enough deterrent for others.

 

Do you know of any search engines that allow use of their API for inline search? In lieu of this one, I now just have duckduckgo 'i'm feeling lucky' as my top fallback

[deanishe 1,397]

5 hours ago, bazerman said:

Do you know of any search engines that allow use of their API for inline search?

 

SearX has an API that returns search results. If you can find a reliable public node with the API turned on.

[bazerman 4]

On 2/25/2020 at 4:05 PM, bazerman said:

Thanks Deanishe, makes sense.

 

I wonder if there's an alternative search engine that's more stable to build an in-line search workflow from. I'm honestly surprised this isn't at the top of everyone's lists, it seems like one of the most obvious and effective uses of alfred! 

I totally agree - this would shoot to my #1 use for alfred, I'm constantly sending people links which I just need to quickly locate, rather than the cumbersome process of searching it on a browser, copying the link, and sending. 

 

Anyone have any suggestions on this?

[Henk van Achterberg 1]

What about these kind of services: https://scaleserp.com/pricing / https://geekflare.com/serp-api/

 

They do the hard work and you have a free tier you can use.

Edited December 16, 2020 by Henk van Achterberg

[bazerman 4]

Nice find! Is this workflowable?

[deanishe 1,397]

25 minutes ago, bazerman said:

Nice find! Is this workflowable?

 

Of course. But the free tiers are very limited and the non-free tiers are very expensive.

[bazerman 4]

On 1/5/2021 at 6:20 PM, deanishe said:

 

Of course. But the free tiers are very limited and the non-free tiers are very expensive.

Free version might be all that's needed for this: Basically, just trying to find a way to quickly find and copy a URL - with the right keywords you can bet it'll be the first result. Current process has default fallback as 'i'm feeling lucky', then opening that as a tab, copying the URL and pasting it into whatever I was doing. But there must be a way to take out the intermediate steps?

[Mr Pennyworth 43]

3 hours ago, bazerman said:

Free version might be all that's needed for this

That can easily be determined.

Free versions have a limit of 100 searches per month or so. (for all of the services listed there)

 

Q: Do you want "search as you type"?
A: If yes, free version won't be enough because because each query in alfred could result in tens of queries to the service.

 

Q: Do you see yourself using this workflow more than thrice a day on average?

A: If yes, free version won't be enough because you'll run out of your quota way before the month ends.

[bazerman 4]

5 hours ago, Mr Pennyworth said:

That can easily be determined.

Free versions have a limit of 100 searches per month or so. (for all of the services listed there)

 

Q: Do you want "search as you type"?
A: If yes, free version won't be enough because because each query in alfred could result in tens of queries to the service.

 

Q: Do you see yourself using this workflow more than thrice a day on average?

A: If yes, free version won't be enough because you'll run out of your quota way before the month ends.

Thanks - makes sense. Once you got used to it, 125 searches/month would get used up fast.  So the alternative is using a search engine that has a free API.

Looks like:

Bing

Faroo

Gigablast

Entireweb

Yacy

 

Looks like the Bing workflow hasn't been supported for a few years

 

 

[deanishe 1,397]

1 hour ago, bazerman said:

Bing

 

Bing is not free. There's a much higher limit to the free tier (1000/month), but that's still not a huge amount.