I searched the forums here and was surprised that this doesn't seem to have been posted yet. But...

It appears that Google is killing off their SOAP-based search API:
http://code.google.com/apis/soapsearch/

This feature allowed programmers to access to Google's search results without using the Google homepage. While I'm guessing that most of the members here aren't programmers, many of you probably use a tool that relies on Google's API. The most common usage of the API is to track keyword performance trends in organic search results. There are numerous sites out there that provide this service. The ability to offer this functionality will most likely get harder soon.

Hi ShortBus - As I read it, it doesn't appear that Google is dropping their API... just recommending that you use newer and better code in new apps....

As of December 5, 2006, we are no longer actively supporting the SOAP Search API. We encourage you to use the AJAX Search API instead.

Again, as I read it, it also appears that the old code won't be disabled, so old apps should continue to run....

For developers who are already using the SOAP Search API, we've kept the documentation live on this site.

If you read the announcement differently, please explain.

The SOAP API is used on the backend by programmers who may or may not be showing the search results to a person. The keyword trending is a good example of the mining through the results without displaying them.

Yes, the SOAP interface still works for now, but dropping official support is a death knell--a clear indication that Google intends to discontinue the service in the future. How soon? I don't think they've stated that yet.

Google is recommending that programmers use the newer AJAX interface instead. I find that kinda strange because AJAX and SOAP are intented to be used in two, entirely different ways. Using AJAX instead of SOAP makes it easier for a web designer to add a Google search widget to their website, because you just cut-and-paste sample code provided by Google. Using the SOAP interface requires some programming know-how, but it's much more flexible. AJAX is next to impossible to use on the backend, so I'm not sure how products/services that rely on the SOAP API are going to cope.

As a side note, Yahoo's SOAP API is still going strong. I've noticed a distinct change in the weather over hte past year. Yahoo has made laudable efforts to reach out to developers wishing to tap into their services while Google seems to be reversing course. It's kinda odd because Google was always the web tinkerer's best friend.

ShortBus - Thanks for the clarification.

Is it just me then, or does this make the only way of getting programmatic info about the Google SERPs screen scraping (again)? I tried using the SOAP interface today and only got 502 errors...

Google is recommending that programmers use the newer AJAX interface instead. I find that kinda strange because AJAX and SOAP are intented to be used in two, entirely different ways. Using AJAX instead of SOAP makes it easier for a web designer to add a Google search widget to their website, because you just cut-and-paste sample code provided by Google. Using the SOAP interface requires some programming know-how, but it's much more flexible. AJAX is next to impossible to use on the backend, so I'm not sure how products/services that rely on the SOAP API are going to cope.

A PS on the above. The last sentence in the following shows that Google is aware that they are going to be limiting further development of services that rely on server side access to search results.

Google Code Blog
Beyond the SOAP Search API

On December 5th, we stopped accepting new sign-ups for the Google SOAP Search API. This change does not impact current users of the SOAP Search API -- you can continue to execute queries, and we have no plans to turn off the service in the future.

While the product was Google's first API and inspired a lot of Google's current developer products, we are no longer devoting resources to increase the capacity of the service, instead focusing our efforts on the AJAX Search API. While the AJAX Search API does not provide server-side access to search results, it has a number of more powerful features, including access to Video, Maps, Blog Search, and News search results.