searchresults.rb

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
#
# quickly lookup # of google search results for a given term
# usage: ~/bin/searchresults.rb "internet memes"

# by Jamie Wilkinson <http://jamiedubs.com>
# Free Art & Technology Lab <http://fffff.at> 

require 'rubygems'
require 'mechanize'

# see also: pagerank.rb
module SEO
  class GoogleSearch
    def initialize(*opts)
      @agent ||= WWW::Mechanize.new
      # @agent.user_agent = 'searchresults.rb'
      # google turns robot user agents down :( we're friendly, I swear
      @agent.user_agent_alias = "Mac Safari"
    end

    # find the total number of search results for an arbitrary query on Google
    def search_result_count(query)
      @agent.get("http://www.google.com/search?q=#{query}") { |page|
        elem = (page/'b')[4]
        raise CannotScrape, "Could not find any search results for an allegedly supported search query, '#{query}'" if elem.nil?
        count = elem.content.gsub(',','').to_i
        return count
      }
    end    
  end
end


# execute with joined ARGV if called directly
if __FILE__ == $0
  if ARGV.empty? || ARGV.first.empty?
    puts "need a query"
    exit 1
  end
  
  query = ARGV.join(' ')
  count = SEO::GoogleSearch.new.search_result_count(query)
  puts "#{count} search resuls for #{query.inspect}"
  exit 0
end