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Written
in Delphi, WebSearch uses the webbrowser object in Delphi to enable
automated searches through Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN.
The size of
the search (e.g. first 100 results) can be specified, and the
search URL is also specified (e.g. www.igris.com). Pages can be
captured for later analysis.
The table
of results can be gradually built up and stored in a table layout.
At any time, the programme can be stopped and the results saved.
The programme can then be re-started later from where it left
off.
Use of this
program saves a lot of manual effort in profiling websites. And,
of course, it is much faster and more reliable than searching
manually.
Because the
WebBrowser object interfaces with Windows Internet Explorer, the
returned pages are held in the Windows Internet page cache. This
allows WebSearch to be used in an offline mode to repeat the same
searches, and produce reports for different URL's.
This is very
useful if profiling several competitors against the same searches
e.g. To profile all hotels in a town, the search profile is run
for one hotel website. The system is then set to offline mode
and the same search (and report) can be run for all other hotels
in turn without repeating the queries over the web.
Google, Yahoo,
etc discourage the use of automated search programmes because
of the load they place on their servers. Usding the innovative
features described above, this programme keeps the load to an
absolute minimum.
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