I am having a lot of fun using the pyGoogle module ( http://pygoogle.sourceforge.net/ ) that uses the Google API. It is about as easy to use as I can imagine, and it is a lot nicer than using my old HTMl screen scraping habits.
My online CGI program Ask Merlin at www.awaretek.com/askmerlin.html is an example. Currently, the program takes any user's question and picks the best answer from amongst the possible answers given by the user. The program uses an algorithm that uses an intelligent analysis of search results from Google. OK, OK, I know already, that this is of limited utility compared to answering any question without requiring the user to give options to choose from; and, furthermore i know full well that at this point Merlin is far from foolproof even when given options to choose amongst. Still, if you play with it for a while you will be amazed at how well it does do. Moreover, I am hard at work on a version that will answer any question without being given options, by choosing options from Google search results that are most appropriate and then applying my "intelligent" algorithm. But hey, even as it stands, when queried "which is the best programming language to use for ease of use," Merlin picks Python from amongst a list of python, ruby, ADA and java. When queried "which language is the best programming language to use for a large project requiring realtime operation and involving life and death issues of human life", Merlin picks ada out of the same list. And, when just plain asked "what is the best programming language" Merlin wisely picks Python from the list. And I assure you that none of this is "hard coded" but instead just uses the regular algorithm applied to any other question ;-)))) OK, it's just a fun little hack by a very amateurish hacker; but that's sort of the point. Just think what a good programmer could do with pyGoogle ;-)))) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
