goosh.org
goosh.org
I think this may be one of the coolest things ever: a command-line interface to google and wikipedia. If you go to goosh.org, you will be put into a command shell that runs in your web browser. Type “help” (or just h) to get a list of commands with a little syntax help. “help [command]” gives more detail about the command.
It’s not a mature scripting interface, and I don’t know a way to make command procedures (being able to embed this in something like perl .. um.. well it probably already exists, never mind) but this is a nice way to get some quick results without going to the trouble to get a developer’s id for google and munge through the XML yourself.
Perhaps the best is the ability to use this as the search engine for your Firefox search box (you know that thing in the upper right that is probably set to google - there are other engines selectable there, I found) Putting a search in there gives the following URL that you could use wiht wget (and call from an really inefficient perl script: http://goosh.org/?q=images+detroit+red+wings