As explained in our blog post, Google has made some technical changes which make it impossible for us to continue gathering rank data in the way we have done in the past.

In the short term we have updated Market Samurai to use your own connection rather than to work through our servers to query Google.  This is a temporary measure which should enable users to track rankings for a limited number of keywords.

Performing a significant number of queries against Google's free search service can cause temporary Google service disruptions, which sometimes results in having to enter a CAPTCHA.  In extreme cases, you may experience an inability to use Google entirely for a short period of time - this is usually a few minutes, but sometimes can be for several hours or more.  But this will not result in any kind of permanent ban on your access, nor is there any reason to fear retribution from Google - they are only trying to prevent misuse of their services.

We recommend that in the short term you limit this possibility by doing the following:

1. Restrict the number of keywords that you check to 10 or fewer at a time
2. Wait a while (say 5-10 minutes) between checking batches of keywords
3. Limit the number of pages that you wish to check with Google to 10 or 20 results
4. Uncheck the "Phrase Match Results" checkbox - this will halve the total number of queries
5. If you do need to check more rankings, consider logging into your Google Webmaster Tools Account to get a quick snapshot of your main keyword rankings, or Google Analytics.  Or sign up for a free 30 day trial for Raven Tools while we work on a permanent solution.

What other alternatives are there?

Google currently provides no easy way to measure your rankings. They display a small handful of rankings in Webmaster Tools, and they show you what keywords you're getting traffic from in Google Analytics (but not your rankings).

Google don't provide, and have no plans to provide, a supported mechanism or API that webmasters can use to measure their rankings.

The APIs which Google do provide for interfacing with their search engine provide consistently different results compared with the live search engine results, making them useless for checking rankings.

The day that Google provides a reliable API or service to provide rankings to webmasters, we will support it in Market Samurai!

There is a provider for Google Ranking data that powers some of the world's largest Rank Tracking sites, such as Raven Tools. It costs a fraction of the price Google charges for its own unreliable APIs. But even at the reduced costs offered by this service, it would cost us over $40,000 a day to make this data available on behalf of our users.

We are searching for a solution which won't result in having to pass charges on to our existing customers, or if that is unavoidable, a solution which will enable us to offer some level of service for free as in the past, and offer more access as paid extra option.

We completely understand the frustration you are probably experiencing - we feel the same way, our business relies on these services too!