List of JSON search engine APIs without quotas, like Bing?

Tom picture Tom · Nov 10, 2011 · Viewed 21.8k times · Source

I'd like to display some custom search results.

I've looked at the JSON APIs of both Google and Microsoft (Bing). Unfortunately, Google has a limit on the amount of queries a day ($50 for a maximum of ten thousand queries). However, Bing allows an "unlimited" amount of queries a day, for free.

Are there other services, like Bing's JSON API, that do not have a query limit like Google's API?

A related question might be how services like Metacrawler can combine search results from several search engines, while the terms of services of these engines clearly state that these results may only be obtained through such (paid) API, and not through crawling.

Answer

Nikhil Kothari picture Nikhil Kothari · Nov 16, 2011

Usually services and APIs have usage threshold, so as to enable experimentation and small-scale use without any hurdles and up-front obstacles, but open up possibility of offering better SLA and additional options with paid usage for apps that need that level of support.

That said looking on programmableweb.com for search APIs is probably an interesting option - see http://www.programmableweb.com/apis/directory/1?apicat=Search.

I am also curious, what you're specifically looking for in terms of capabilities, what you'd like to see in the Bing API etc. Any feedback and I can relay to the team (since I am on the Bing team).