Google Web Search Service API Opens Up for Programmatic Partners

Google recently updated its public developer documentation for the Web Search Service API, which allows partners to retrieve and display Google search results in their websites and apps.

The API is available only to programmatic partners who have a client ID tied to a partner agreement on top of a Google Cloud project and API key.

The main overview page and four related pages were updated on September 9, with the Custom Search JSON API set to end in January 2027 as the backdrop. In January, Google told developers that anyone needing full-web results would need to contact them about a separate full-web solution.

The Web Search Service API provides a single method called 'Search' which performs a 'full web search'. It returns results in JSON format through REST or gRPC, requiring a partner client ID, the user's IP address, and the search query. Up to 20 results per request are available, with an option to get more pages using a token.

The Web Search Service API matches the full-web use case from January on two points: it performs a full web search and is limited to partners.