What user-agent should I use for scraping Google Search?

When scraping web pages, including Google Search, it's essential to follow the terms of service of the website. Google's terms of service generally do not allow automated querying or web scraping without explicit permission. Ignoring these terms can lead to your IP address being blocked or other legal actions.

However, for educational purposes or for working with APIs that Google provides for developers (such as the Custom Search JSON API), you might need to set a user-agent. The user-agent string is used to identify the type of device, operating system, and browser that is making the request. Google's services may require a recognized user-agent to return the correct response.

If you are using an API or have obtained permission to scrape Google Search, you should use a user-agent that identifies your bot as a legitimate service. Here's an example of a user-agent that you could use:

MyScraperBot/1.0 (+http://www.myscraperbot.com)

In this example, "MyScraperBot/1.0" is the name and version of your scraper bot, and the URL provided should point to a webpage that explains the purpose of your bot, who operates it, and how to contact them if there are any issues.

If you're writing a script or a program to scrape data, you can set the user-agent in your HTTP request headers. Below are examples of how you would set a custom user-agent in Python using the requests library and in JavaScript using Node.js with the axios library.

Python Example with requests

import requests

url = 'https://www.google.com/search?q=example+query'
headers = {
    'User-Agent': 'MyScraperBot/1.0 (+http://www.myscraperbot.com)'
}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
print(response.text)

JavaScript (Node.js) Example with axios

const axios = require('axios');

const url = 'https://www.google.com/search?q=example+query';
const headers = {
    'User-Agent': 'MyScraperBot/1.0 (+http://www.myscraperbot.com)'
};

axios.get(url, { headers })
    .then(response => console.log(response.data))
    .catch(error => console.error(error));

Remember, even with a legitimate user-agent, scraping Google Search results in a way that violates Google's terms of service can result in your IP being blocked or other legal consequences. Always use APIs provided by services when available and ensure that you're abiding by the terms of service and any relevant laws.