Fetch top X URLs for keywords from Google

google_links.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
"""Fetch top X URLs for keywords from Google."""

import click                # [sudo] pip install click
import requests             # [sudo] pip install requests


search_url = u'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/web?v=1.0&q=%s'


def get_urls_from_search(keywords, number):
    """You can import this function into your own code and use it
    to fetch URLs. It will return a list that you can use as you 
    wish.
    
    example:
        >>> from google import get_urls_from_search
        >>> get_urls_from_search('hello world', 1)
        [u'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%2522Hello,_world!%2522_program']
    """
    # Allow function to be used by passing list, tuples or string
    if type(keywords) != str:
        assert type(keywords) == tuple or type(keywords) == list
        keywords = ' '.join(keywords)
        
    # Call Google search API
    response = requests.get(search_url % keywords)
    
    # list comprehension to pick out only the URLs from JSON data structure
    urls = [x['url'] for x in response.json()[u'responseData'][u'results']]
    
    # return as many urls as requested (with maximum being 8, that Google gives)
    return urls[:number]


@click.command()
@click.option('--n', default=1, help='number of links to fetch')
@click.argument('keywords', nargs=-1)
def command_line(keywords, n):
    # Print the URLs, one on each line
    print('\n'.join(get_urls_from_search(keywords, n)))


if __name__ == '__main__':
    """Usage: 
        python google_links.py some keywords
        python google_links.py some keywords --n=3
    """
    command_line()