Another search engine shutters their API or tightens their terms of service. A metal spike is driven through the power source of your project. Hours wasted, dreams crushed, John Connor is definitely going to get dusted by the T1000. Several search APIs have met a similar fate during the development of Mutate.it. It always feels like one step forward and two steps back. While trying to focus on core features, you are forced to rebuild the guts of your project from scratch. This sentiment holds particularly true when build time is relegated to 20 minutes at a pop at 5 in the morning.
Alternate power, time to hitch a ride on the conveyor belt and get busy with some explosive shells. Seriously though, love that scene, best action movie EVER (segue). This path had led from Google to Bing back to Google and finally on to Yahoo. Strangely, despite common negative press, Yahoo had offered a respectable mix of usability and flexible terms. That was until the Boss Search API was discontinued…bummer. As the available search engines faded into the distance, our team (me, myself and I) began to lose hope. Life is busy and who needs a dream anyways.
I had made the decision to file a patent before the bells had tolled on my search API issue. While the general merits of this decision are up for debate in the software world, the response from the patent office offered a glimmer of light and a challenge to continue the struggle. I began to scour the internet for Alternate Search API options. Gigablast Search API crossed my path. It wasn’t run by Silicon Valley giants and it had a cowboy edge to it. While the search results quality was a stretch at times, it was easy to migrate my service to their structure and the terms of use were simple, simple, simple. There was another Skywalker, albeit completely stripped down and hidden in a dusty corner of the internet. Just what we needed to keeps the dream alive and lay waste to that T1000 serendipitously standing over the blast furnace of molten metal. Now where’s my shotgun?