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I wanted to create a search box on my website that would allow the user to directly search another site. It works like this:

  • The user types in "facebook" in the search bar
  • The app generates the link: http://instantlogosearch.com/?q=facebook
  • And upon clicking "Search" navigates to that url (which shows the results on the other site in a new tab

By adding the search query after ?q= it navigates directly to the results page. It is technically just a link to another site, but because it's generated like this I wanted to make sure if that's allowed.

The ToS of Instant Logo Search only refer to the use of images on the site and don't mention anything about any kind of integration. The reason why this might be a problem is the additional traffic that Instant Logo Search might experience which could lead to higher costs for them. Although my app is just a small side-project and I don't expect the traffic to be high.

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Yes, the project you describe is lawful.

Consider the scenario of asking a person to search for certain keywords on some website(s) and recite to you the results of that search. The difference between that mechanism and your project is that your project would use a program instead of a person to perform the task. From a legal standpoint, there is no reason why each scenario should lead to opposite outcomes.

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  • Thanks. Just to make sure though, I don't need to ask the website owner for permission to do this, right?
    – Mateusz Hadryś
    Jan 14, 2020 at 18:26
  • @MateuszHadryś Right. You don't need permission from the website owner.
    – Iñaki Viggers
    Jan 14, 2020 at 18:58

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