Need: Search google via the API and get a json result that mimmics the result found when I search on the webapi
My Custom Search settings is to search the Entire Web
My search resutns:
Search Term: 072745546181 (which is a UPC label for some Chicken Breasts)
https://www.googleapis.com/customsearch/v1?key=AIzaSyBaPxycT3gj82T5qm66XGgIvtSEP31LISo&cx=015261035819156121642:qj7jmhlymjw&q=072745546181
Web search returns (see results)
Search Term: 072745546181 (which is a UPC label for some Chicken Breasts)
Example 1: https://www.google.de/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=072745546181
Notice the q= at the end is the same q=072745546181
There must be a simple answer, what am I doing wrong here?
Conversely, searching with terms like "Donald Trump President"
https://www.googleapis.com/customsearch/v1?key=AIzaSyBaPxycT3gj82T5qm66XGgIvtSEP31LISo&cx=015261035819156121642:qj7jmhlymjw&q=donald trump president
returns an okay result I can do something with. No problem here, but why when searching UPC's it fails?
What should I do?
Update 1.26.17 - Added 50 Point Bounty, I can make more. What is normal rate? Need some help!
This is a fascinating question. I just ran a series of tests that confirms that keywords are treated oddly if they contain more than 8 numerical digits (even if seperated by whitespace or hyphens). They are not simply ignored - because this SO page is found - but most websites are not returned. My best guess for this behaviour is it is a deliberate filter put in by google to restrict numerical searches to "trusted" websites in order to prevent phone number lookups. It might even be a more aggressive move to limit UPC, government records and patent lookups so automated tools can't compete with current or planned Google services that do the same.
I experimented with all sorts of tests including advanced operators like inurl%3A072745546181, allintitle%3A0727+4554+6181 and targeting sites that appear in the regular search like url%3Abuycott.com+072745546181 and the behaviour is consistent. It is so consistent that it has to be deliberate.
I'd say with 95% certainty you can't do what you want with Custom Search and it's highly unlikely Google will provide you a workaround.
I would suggest trying another search API provider, maybe Bing Web Search API or Faroo or one of these product search APIs