Google Hacks

Instant Messaging Google

Accessing Google with AOL Instant Messenger.

If we’re going to step out beyond the Google interface, why even bother to use the Web at all? The Google API makes it possible to access Google’s information in many different ways. Googlematic makes it possible to query Google from the comfort of AOL Instant Messenger.

Here’s how it works: send a message (a Google query) to the instant messenger buddy, “googlematic.” Googlematic will message you back with the top result for your query. Reply with “More” and you’ll get more results formatted as a numbered list. Figure 6-22 illustrates this.

Figure 6-22. Query to googlematic through AOL Instant Messenger

Message with the number associated with a particular result for further details, as shown in Figure 6-23.

Figure 6-23. Requesting further detail for a googlematic result

The Googlematic script, further instructions, and links to required modules may be found at http://interconnected.org/googlematic/.

The Code

#!/usr/bin/perl -w # googlematic.pl # Provides an AIM interface to Google, using the Google SOAP API # and POE to manage all the activity. # # Usage # ./googlematic.pl & # # Requirements # - Googlematic::IM, Googlematic::Responder, Googlematic::Search, # which are all distributed with this script ...