Also! May I suggest that you take a look at the WWW::Mechanize module on CPAN?

Depending upon your requirements, you may be better recommended to employ the Google Web API using SOAP::Lite - There is an example of employing this interface with SOAP::Lite both in the examples directory of the SOAP::Lite package (in fact, this example returns the number of search results in the same manner which you are attempting to achieve with your code) and at http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/h/170