Is there any access to the "google-custom-search" for students?
It is for a thesis. I want to implement/use the "normalized google distance" for my dataset. Unfortunately, my university has no general agreement with google.
PS. yes I know I could simply parse the web-page. But it seems to be a bit lame if there is an api for that.
Google discontinued the only paid option of the Custom Search Engine (CSE), so now your only option is 'free' -- in return for seeing a few content-based ads in your custom search results.
The 'pro' option now is the json/atom Search API, also free up to 100 queries per day.
I highly recommend that "anyone who ever uses a search engine", check them both out. It takes minutes to create a custom search - and after that there are countless optional ways to customize or integrate with other (free) tools like Analytics or Sheets/Slides/Forms/etc. If your CSE gets popular enough, they'll start paying you.
Google has a lot of 'products' that many people aren't aware of (most with free options) that.
Side note, since you're a class - Microsoft has some pretty sweet deals for anyone student/teacher with an email address on a school domain ($1000's in free software.)