title: Using Python to ask a web page to run a search
body: <p>I have a list of protein names in the "Uniprot" format, and I'd like to convert them all to the MGI format. If you go to www.uniprot.org and type the uniprot protein name into the "Query" bar, it will generate a page with a bunch of information about that protein, including its MGI name (albeit much further down the page).</p>
  
  <p>For example, one Uniprot name is "Q9D880", and by scrolling down, you can see that its corresponding MGI name is "1913775". </p>
  
  <p>I already know how to use Python's urllib to extract the MGI name from a page once I get to that page. What I <em>don't</em> know how to do is write Python code to get the main page to run a query of "Q9D880". My list contains 270 protein names, so it would be nice to avoid copying&amp;pasting each protein name into the Query bar.</p>
  
  <p>I saw the "Google Search from a Python App" post, and I have a firmer understanding of this concept, but I suspect that running a google search is different from running the search function on some other website, like uniprot.org.</p>
  
  <p>I'm running Python 2.7.2, but I'm open to implementing solutions that use other versions of Python. Thanks for the help!</p>