University Research Program for Google Search

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Terms of Use

Thank you for using the University Research Program for Google Search (the “Service”). By using the Service, you and the other members, if any, of Your research team who are employed by Your university (collectively, "You" or “Your”) accept and agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions (the "Terms of Use"). This agreement permits You to access the Service described below, derive data from the Service, and use that data for specific academic research and publications (“Research Use”).  By executing these Terms of Use, you confirm that you are at least 18 years or age and are acting with the authority of Your University, and that these Terms of Use bind the University as a party.

1. Service

1.1 Description of Service. The Service allows You to access, solely for academic research purposes only, web search results limited by rate, number of results, and daily maximum queries.  Notwithstanding the foregoing, Google reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to reset the search result limits as it deems necessary from time to time.

The Service does not provide You with the ability to access other underlying Google services or data.

In order to use this Service, You must agree to these Terms of Use and submit the program participation request form (the “Application”) provided by Google.  Should Google, in its sole discretion, approve Your request, You will be provided with authorized access to the Service.

1.2 Appropriate Conduct and Prohibited Uses.

You may use the Service solely for the research project described in each individual Application.  If Your research objectives change substantially, you must submit a new Application.  Data obtained through Your Research must be made available to the general public as described in Section 2.2 below.  Except as provided in Section 2.2, You may not display, distribute or otherwise provide search results, URLs, or titles obtained through this Service to third parties.

You may not publicly release the results of Your research as a web page of clickable results similar in any way to a google.com search result page.

You may not in any manner imply a relationship or affiliation with, sponsorship, or endorsement by, Google other than that of Your involvement in the Service.  Further You will not make a statement or take any action that can be reasonably interpreted to suggest Your research has been authored by, or represents the views or opinions of, Google or Google personnel.  Attribution language that is permitted under these Terms of Use is provided in Section 2.2 of this Agreement.

You agree that You are responsible for Your own conduct and content while using the Service and for any consequences thereof. You agree to use the Service only for academic research purposes that are legal, proper and in accordance with these Terms of Use. By way of example, and not as a limitation, You agree that when using the Service, You will not, and will not permit or take actions designed to enable other third parties to:

• Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others;
• Impersonate another person or entity, or falsify or delete any author attributions, legal or other proper notices or proprietary designations or labels of the origin or source of software or other material;
• Use the Service for any illegal or unauthorized purpose;
• Remove any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notices contained in or on the Service;
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers or networks connected to the Service, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Service;
• Create user accounts by automated means or under false or fraudulent pretenses;
• Promote or provide instructional information about illegal activities or promote physical harm or injury against any group or individual;
• Transmit any viruses, worms, defects, Trojan horses, or any items of a destructive nature;
• Attempt to reverse engineer or otherwise discover the architecture and technology behind Google’s web crawl, index, search, or ranking systems; or
• Use the Service to conduct research which was not included in an Application.

2. Proprietary Rights

2.1 Google Rights. For purposes of these Terms of Use, "Intellectual Property Rights" shall mean any and all rights existing from time to time under patent law, copyright law, semiconductor chip protection law, moral rights law, trade secret law, trademark law, unfair competition law, publicity rights law, privacy rights law, and any and all other proprietary rights, and any and all applications, renewals, extensions and restorations thereof, now or hereafter in force and effect worldwide. As between You and Google, You acknowledge that Google owns all right, title and interest, including without limitation all Intellectual Property Rights, in and to the Service and that You shall not acquire any right, title, or interest in or to the Service, except as expressly set forth in these Terms of Use. You further acknowledge that third parties may own right, title and interest, including without limitation all Intellectual Property Rights, in and to content indexed by Google and linked to or excerpted in the Google Search results, and that You shall not acquire any right, title, or interest in or to such content except as provided by applicable law or under this agreement.

2.2 Use of Data and Attribution.  The Service is being made available to you with the intention of furthering the public good through academic research.  You agree that any scholarly works produced from research conducted using the Service (the "Scholarly Work") shall be made available to any member of the public on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms, that copies of the Scholarly Work will be freely available to the public online, and notification of the existence of such works must be made to all interested parties without bias. All Scholarly Works shall be accompanied by the following attribution:   

• This research draws on data provided by the University Research Program for Google Search, a service provided by Google to promote a greater common understanding of the web.

Except to the extent the Scholarly Work unlawfully contains Google proprietary information, Google shall not claim an interest in or ownership of the Scholarly Works. 

Except as separately and expressly authorized by Google, You will not publish search results from more than 100 queries in a single publication. Further, the aggregate search results You publish will not exceed 1000 per Application.

3. Privacy Policy

Google's collection and use of personal information, including that submitted on the program participation request form, is governed by Google's Privacy Policy, available at http://www.google.com/privacy.html. You understand and agree that Google may access, preserve, and disclose Your personal information and the contents of Your account if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that such access preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with legal process or protect the rights, property and/or safety of Google, its affiliates or the public. Personal information collected by Google may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Google or its agents maintain facilities. By using the Service, You consent to any such transfer of information outside of Your country.

4. Indemnity

You agree to hold harmless and indemnify Google, and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, and employees, advertisers or partners, from and against any third party claim arising from or in any way related to Your use of the Service, violation of these Terms of Use, including any liability or expense arising from all claims, losses, damages (actual and consequential), suits, judgments, litigation costs and attorneys' fees, of every kind and nature. In such a case, Google will provide You with written notice of such claim, suit or action.

5. Disclaimer of Warranties

YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT:

a. YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. GOOGLE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

b. GOOGLE MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT (i) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, (ii) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, (iii) THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICE WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE, (iv) THE QUALITY OF ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, INFORMATION, OR OTHER MATERIAL PURCHASED OR OBTAINED BY YOU THROUGH THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS, AND (V) ANY ERRORS IN THE SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED.

c. ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE SERVICE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND THAT YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL.

d. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM GOOGLE OR THROUGH OR FROM GOOGLE SERVICES SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE.

6. Limitation of Liability

YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT GOOGLE SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF GOOGLE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (i) THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE; (ii) THE COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS AND SERVICES RESULTING FROM ANY GOODS, DATA, INFORMATION OR SERVICES PURCHASED OR OBTAINED OR MESSAGES RECEIVED OR TRANSACTIONS ENTERED INTO THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICE; (iii) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (iv) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE SERVICE; OR (v) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE SERVICE.

7. Exclusions and Limitations

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. ACCORDINGLY, SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS OF SECTIONS 5 AND 6 MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

8. Term and Termination

8.1 Term. The term of these Terms of Use shall commence on the date upon which You agree to these Terms of Use and shall continue in force thereafter, unless terminated as provided herein.

8.2 Termination. Google may change, suspend or discontinue all or any aspect of the Service, including its availability, at any time, and may suspend or terminate Your use of the Service at any time. This includes, without limitation, the right to reset, at Google's own discretion and at any time, a maximum number of Google Search results you may access through the Service.

In addition, Google may terminate these Terms of Use at any time, for any reason, or for no reason.

If You desire to terminate these Terms of Use, You must, unless granted an exception in writing by Google, immediately delete any and all Google Search results and notify Google of Your actions in writing. 

8.3 Rejection of Application. Google shall have the right, in its sole discretion, to reject any Application to use the Service for any time and for any reason.

8.4 Effect of Termination. Upon the termination of the Terms of Use for any reason (i) all license rights granted herein shall terminate and (ii) unless granted an exception in writing by Google, You shall immediately delete any and all Google Search results and will not thereafter publish any Google Search results.

8.5 Survival. In the event of any termination or expiration of the Terms of Use for any reason, Sections 2.1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7 and 9 shall survive termination. Neither party shall be liable to the other party for damages of any sort resulting solely from terminating the Terms of Use in accordance with its terms.

8.6 Remedies. You acknowledge that Your breach of service/license restrictions contained herein may cause irreparable harm to Google, the extent of which would be difficult to ascertain. Accordingly, You agree that, in addition to any other remedies to which Google may be legally entitled, Google shall have the right to seek immediate injunctive relief in the event of a breach of such sections by You.

8.7 Third Party Beneficiaries. Nothing in the Terms of Use should be construed to confer any rights to third party beneficiaries.

8.8 Modifications. Google may modify the Terms of Use at any time.  If a modification is unacceptable to You, You may cancel the Service by following the termination provisions set forth in Section 8.2.  If You continue to use the Service, You will be deemed to have accepted the modifications. 

9. General Information

9.1 Entire Agreement. The Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between You and Google and govern Your use of the Service, superseding any prior agreements between You and Google. You also may be subject to additional terms and conditions that may apply when You use or purchase certain other Google services, affiliate services, third-party content or third-party software.

9.2 Choice of Law and Forum. These Terms of Use and the relationship between You and Google shall be governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. You and Google agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the county of Santa Clara, California.

9.3 Waiver and Severability of Terms. The failure of Google to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of the Terms of Use is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of these Terms of Use remain in full force and effect.

9.4 Headings.  The section headings in these Terms of Use are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect.