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>Mullvad Leta uses the Google Search API as a proxy search engine. Searches are cached each time, and the cached results are shared by every user of the I was

>Mullvad Leta uses the Google Search API as a proxy search engine. Searches are cached each time, and the cached results are shared by every user of the I was under the impression that the search API terms didn't allow people to cache the results/data, although I might be thinking of another one of their services.

yunohn 3y ago
> Google Search API This does NOT exist. They are misusing/reverse-engineering Google Search. Edit: As child comments say, there is a version of a Search API available by paying. This is not the same as what Mullvad is providing and is not meant to provide a competitive service to Google.
- deleted 3y ago
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- anshumankmr 3y ago
  We used this for a project: https://programmablesearchengine.google.com/about/ https://programmablesearchengine.google.com/about/ before we moved to Elastic Search. It has a REST API (and can be used to query the internet also, though our use case required us to restrict the results of one particular domain). I believe this is the closest thing to a Google Search API.
  - qwertox 3y ago
    So they seem to have a special agreement. 1.3 Your Obligations. You shall receive a Query from the End User and shall forward that Query to Google. You may not in any way frame, cache or modify the Results produced by Google, except as otherwise agreed to between You and Google. https://support.google.com/programmable-search/answer/1714300?hl=en https://support.google.com/programmable-search/answer/171430...
    - anshumankmr 3y ago
      I suppose a they may have written a service to query Google and there may be a CDN caching responses from that, which can be argued as not being a permanent datastore which I believe Google may be more likely have a problem with. It could also depend on the fact whether Google is willing to send a cease and desist over this. However, I am no lawyer, so take it with a grain of salt.
- jsnell 3y ago
  It absolutely does exist, as can be seen from companies like Startpage and Kagi using that paid API. But yes, it seems hard to believe that the terms of service for a paid API would allow for caching of results. What this sounds like is Mullvad betting that they can just use their VPN IPs for scraping search results and not be blocked. Edit: the Leta FAQ claims they're paying for API access, seems unlikely they'd lie about that.
- lbhdc 3y ago
  They list search in their public api https://github.com/googleapis/googleapis/blob/288aa7fb71c9b6244db1a816cfd4108f811e6049/google/cloud/retail/v2/search_service.proto#L54 https://github.com/googleapis/googleapis/blob/288aa7fb71c9b6...
  - yunohn 3y ago
    That’s the Retail Search API, as seen in your URL. https://github.com/googleapis/googleapis/blob/288aa7fb71c9b6244db1a816cfd4108f811e6049/google/cloud/retail/v2/search_service.proto https://github.com/googleapis/googleapis/blob/288aa7fb71c9b6...
deleted 3y ago
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yunohn 3y ago

> Google Search API This does NOT exist. They are misusing/reverse-engineering Google Search. Edit: As child comments say, there is a version of a Search API available by paying. This is not the same as what Mullvad is providing and is not meant to provide a competitive service to Google.

deleted 3y ago
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anshumankmr 3y ago
We used this for a project: https://programmablesearchengine.google.com/about/ https://programmablesearchengine.google.com/about/ before we moved to Elastic Search. It has a REST API (and can be used to query the internet also, though our use case required us to restrict the results of one particular domain). I believe this is the closest thing to a Google Search API.
- qwertox 3y ago
  So they seem to have a special agreement. 1.3 Your Obligations. You shall receive a Query from the End User and shall forward that Query to Google. You may not in any way frame, cache or modify the Results produced by Google, except as otherwise agreed to between You and Google. https://support.google.com/programmable-search/answer/1714300?hl=en https://support.google.com/programmable-search/answer/171430...
  - anshumankmr 3y ago
    I suppose a they may have written a service to query Google and there may be a CDN caching responses from that, which can be argued as not being a permanent datastore which I believe Google may be more likely have a problem with. It could also depend on the fact whether Google is willing to send a cease and desist over this. However, I am no lawyer, so take it with a grain of salt.
jsnell 3y ago
It absolutely does exist, as can be seen from companies like Startpage and Kagi using that paid API. But yes, it seems hard to believe that the terms of service for a paid API would allow for caching of results. What this sounds like is Mullvad betting that they can just use their VPN IPs for scraping search results and not be blocked. Edit: the Leta FAQ claims they're paying for API access, seems unlikely they'd lie about that.
lbhdc 3y ago
They list search in their public api https://github.com/googleapis/googleapis/blob/288aa7fb71c9b6244db1a816cfd4108f811e6049/google/cloud/retail/v2/search_service.proto#L54 https://github.com/googleapis/googleapis/blob/288aa7fb71c9b6...
- yunohn 3y ago
  That’s the Retail Search API, as seen in your URL. https://github.com/googleapis/googleapis/blob/288aa7fb71c9b6244db1a816cfd4108f811e6049/google/cloud/retail/v2/search_service.proto https://github.com/googleapis/googleapis/blob/288aa7fb71c9b6...

deleted 3y ago

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