My day job is as an ASP.NET programmer. I've been asked to add some functionality to a project the company I work for got from one of their clients. They have a search box that submits a query to the database, but want to change the way it works to performing a Google search.
I poked around, and the way this is normally done is an html form that submits to Google ( example script ). But they said no way Jose, they don't want the users leaving the page, let alone the site, to get the search results. They want the web application to submit a query to Google behind the scenes, and then scrape the results, extract the URLs ( and maybe descriptions ), and have those come out on the page in the application.
That doesn't seem immoral in and of itself, but it violates Google's terms of service. I brought this up, but I was told it's not a decision for us coders to make, and those are our requirements. I know this could get the site banned from Google, and again brought this up to no avail. But is it illegal? Is it unethical? I never actually formalized a contract where I agreed to the terms of service, like I did with my cell phone. Still, I understand processing cycles, bandwidth, and the enormous scale Google operates on, and I can see how auto queries interfere with their goals. And deprive them of ad revenue. I wouldn't want somebody hobbling my livelihood, and I believe in the Golden Rule. So I feel a little uneasy doing this.
Should I? What say you? |
