makeurl

#!/usr/bin/perl

# makeurl city search-terms
#
# ideas borrowed from
#   https://moz.com/ugc/geolocation-the-ultimate-tip-to-emulate-local-search

# +-----------+------------------------------------------------------
# | Libraries |
# +-----------+

use MIME::Base64;
use URI::Encode qw(uri_encode);

# +-----------+------------------------------------------------------
# | Constants |
# +-----------+

# The list of codes for different length strings
my @CODES= split(//,"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz");

# The start of the URL
my $BASE = "http://www.google.com/search?";

# +------+-----------------------------------------------------------
# | Main |
# +------+

# Grab the parameters
my $city = $ARGV[0];
my $term = $ARGV[1];

# Build the location part of the query
my $code = encode_base64($city);
chomp($code);
$code =~ s/==$//;
my $location = "uule=w+CAIQICI" . lengthcode($city) . $code;

# Build the term part of the query
my $search = "q=" . uri_encode($term);

# Build the whole URL
my $url = "$BASE$location&$search";

# And we're done
print "$url\n";

exit 0;

# +-------------+----------------------------------------------------
# | Subroutines |
# +-------------+

sub lengthcode($) {
  my $string = shift;
  my $length = length($string);
  $length = $length % 64;
  return $CODES[$length];
}