John Herren’s Blog

Google Labs has released Hot Trends, a daily list of the top 100 searches. This is prime mashup data that’s begging for some great visualizations. Unfortunately, the TOS states:

 2. Proper Use. The content and software on this Site is the property of Google and/or its suppliers and is protected by U.S. and international intellectual property laws. Accordingly, you agree that you will not copy, reproduce, alter, modify, create derivative works, or publicly display any content (except for your own personal, non-commercial use) from the Site. You also agree that you will not use any robot, spider, other automated device, or manual process to monitor or copy any content from the Site. Furthermore, the Site is provided to you for your own personal use, and it may not be used for any commercial purposes. For example, you may not do any of the following: use the Site to sell a product or service; use the Site to increase traffic to your Web site for commercial reasons, such as advertising sales; take the results from the Site and reformat and display them, or mirror any portion of the Site on your Web site; or “meta-search” the Site. If you wish to use any portion of the Site for commercial purposes, please contact us for more information. Any use of the Site that infringes upon Google’s intellectual property rights or that is for commercial purposes will be investigated and Google shall have the right to take appropriate civil and criminal legal action. [emphasis mine]

So, to be clear, you aren’t allowed to scrape or build a mashup from the data. Shame.