Accessing Google with AOL Instant Messenger.

If we’re going to step out beyond the Google interface, why even bother to use the Web at all? The Google API makes it possible to access Google’s information in many different ways. Googlematic makes it possible to query Google from the comfort of AOL Instant Messenger.

Here’s how it works: send a message (a Google query) to the instant messenger buddy googlematic. Googlematic will message you back with the top result for your query. Reply with More and you’ll get more results formatted as a numbered list, as shown in Figure 5-24.

Figure 5-24. Query to googlematic through AOL Instant Messenger

Message with the number associated with a particular result for further details, as shown in Figure 5-25.

Figure 5-25. Requesting further detail for a googlematic result

You can find the Googlematic script, further instructions, and links to required modules at http://interconnected.org/googlematic.