I'm searching for the same thing for the same reason as you. I was told to do it, despite my reservations. People love those ranks because they don't want to read the stats I guess.
Anyway, your note was the first I heard that Google isn't giving out Web APIs for this anymore and if you don't already have one, I don't think you should use any Google rank checkers. It's potentially risky based on what I've been reading. Risks are to have your IP blocked from Google searches, and maybe other unknown risks. Google claims that if you already have a Web API, you can keep using it with no harm done. I already have one so I will proceed with my research.

So far, I still haven't found a free or low-budget tool that will do this the way I want. I would ideally like something that shows the ranks over time, on a graph. I can check ranks myself; it's the tracking over time that is cumbersome. It seems many of the keyword research tools include a rank checking tool but they can be costly. If you find something you like, please use stickymail to let me know. I'll be happy to do the same if you let me know you want that via stickymail. I don't get email notification of replies to regular posts unless it's stickymail, despite checking the box that I want that.

Thanks and good luck.

My boss found another ranking program. It's not as easy to use as the one we've been using the past few years, though, but it produces reports that go into all sorts of details.

One nice part about the program is that it delays queries to Google. Essentially it's doing a keyword search about as often as a human might do it. Sometimes it's 45 minutes between keywords.

But I really wish I didn't have to do this at all. For my own website, I have a special software program. It's called "pen and paper."

Every month or so, I'll do a search for my most desirable keywords, write the position down on the sheet of paper, and compare it to where that keyword was last time.

Another valuable tool I use is my stats program. For over two years, 45% of my traffic has come from Google. I'll look at the stats every few days, and look at the percentage of visitors who are coming in via Google. If I notice that the numbers drop (which they haven't) then I'll assume there's a problem and go look to see what it is.

dickbacker-- check your sticky. I use a very common program that accepts Google API keys (if you have one...if not that's ok too), delays queries to various engines, and allows you to enter a list of competitors' sites to check against your own without slowing down the process.