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I'm trying to use PHP to return the resultant HTML of a Google search.

So for instance

<?php
$file = file_get_contents('http://www.example.com',false);
echo $file;
?>

will return the HTML contents of example.com. The problem is, when I try to do this on a Google search URL, e.g., http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=cats, it returns the HTML from the main Google page and NOT the search results for 'cats'.

What's the easiest way to do this?

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2 Answers 2

up vote 2 down vote accepted

You want a URL of this form:

http://www.google.com/search?q=cats

The URL you're using is for their new "instant search"

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OK, I've answered my own question. Sorry. If I turn Google Insant off, it works fine on a URL like http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cats

Thanks anyway!

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