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

[deanishe]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Nice find! Is this workflowable?

[deanishe]

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]

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]

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]

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 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.

[bazerman]

I miss the inline google search workflow! It was probably my most used workflow, I'm surprised there aren't more people wanting this. Has anyone made one for any other search engine since the google API changes?