Scroogle down again

**Renk** · 04.11.10, 06:18

November 3, 2010: Here we go again...

We regret to announce that Google changed their output format once again. The last time this happened was in July, and we were down for five days. During that time we looked for the simplest remaining Google format we could find, reprogrammed our parser, and ended up with something that worked. However, the file we fetched from Google was three times more bloated for the same information, as compared to the previous format we used, and we are still not happy about this.

Now it looks like even more bloat. We have to take a closer look at the new format and see if we can program around it. Check back in a day or two.

https://ssl.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbwssl.cgi

It looks like since some months, Scroogle's dev managed with tricks to handle the bloated format provided by Google. But tricks have their limits.

**Instab** · 04.11.10, 06:33

noticed problems all day already. but i'm optimistic until further notice

**anon** · 04.11.10, 21:51

That must be why their scraper wasn't working at all half the time yesterday.

---------- Post added at 17:51 ---------- Previous post was at 08:10 ----------

Scroogle's back on track!

**anon** · 10.03.11, 01:22

March 9, 2011: Here we go again...

We regret to announce that Google changed their output format once again. The last time this happened was in November, and we were down for a day. During that time we looked for the simplest remaining Google format we could find, reprogrammed our parser, and ended up with something that worked. However, the file we fetched from Google was three times more bloated for the same information, as compared to the previous format we used, and we are still not happy about this.

Now it looks like even more bloat. We have to take a closer look at the new format and see if we can program around it. Check back in a day or two.

**anon** · 10.03.11, 17:18

Working now!

**anon** · 19.02.12, 19:15

Is Scroogle still working for you guys? These days I get the "Google is blocking us" message 90% of the time, when the page loads at all. This began happening around the time I began using SSL exclusively, but I doubt that's the cause.

I have to use DDG and ixquick now, and unfortunately their results are a bit less accurate.

**SBfreak** · 19.02.12, 19:22

Well the page won't even load for me assuming this is the right URL.

Code:

http://www.scroogle.org/

I'm using blekko | spam free search right now.

**Master Razor** · 19.02.12, 19:46

Originally Posted by anon

Is Scroogle still working for you guys? These days I get the "Google is blocking us" message 90% of the time, when the page loads at all.

It hasn't been working for 1 month now (at least). Always the "google is blocking us" message. I began using google again due to the fact that I couldn't find a 'safe' search engine that could satisfy me. I can't use ixquick because it's slow (compared to scroogle and less accurate).

**BrianBosworth** · 19.02.12, 20:08

Scroogle is down, but it may be for reasons other than big brother Google. Here's an interesting article I just read: Scroogle May Have Been a Victim of Hackers, Not Google | Betabeat — News, gossip and intel from Silicon Alley 2.0.

As for an alternative, I've been using Privatelee It scrapes results from both Google and Bing and also provides image searches as well.

**SealLion** · 20.02.12, 00:53

From Brian's article:

....the hacker orchestrated DDOS attacks, in which a flood of traffic overwhelms a site, against Scroogle and Wikipedia Watch out of personal malice for Mr. Brandt.

Very unfortunate.