title: perform a google search and return the number of results
body: <p>The Google Web Search APIs appear to be dead (both the old SOAP and the newer AJAX).  Is there a quick way to search Google for a string and return the number of results?  I assume I just have to run the search and scrape the results, but I'd love to know if there's a better way.  </p>
  
  <p><strong>Update:  It turns out that any automated access to Google that doesn't use their new API <a href="https://developers.google.com/custom-search/json-api/v1/overview" rel="noreferrer">https://developers.google.com/custom-search/json-api/v1/overview</a> violates their terms of service, and is thus not recommended.</strong></p>