[HELP] Submit query to search engines

Hi:

I want to programmatically submit queries into search engines
(like yahoo, altavista)and receive the answer stream to analyze it..

In my first idea, I can create a socket to connect to search server
and form HTTP request to send it.
And then waiting on receiving data back..Does it make sense??

If any good examples to explain how to make it..
thanx a lot!!