reversing Android Market app network traffic

Source code of Android Market app is not available. What I want to do is reversing the network protocol used by the market. The purpos开发者_如何学运维e is to build a tool that can simulate a handset and search for a particular phrase, thus returning the rank of a target application (or maybe the whole list for that particular keyword)

I can connect my Android phone to my home wifi network. Then I need a way to set a "proxy" and a tool like Wireshark. Maybe it would be easier if my phone were rooted, but I don't want to mess with the factory rom. Does anybody have any suggestion? Or maybe has a rooted phone and wants to collaborate with me?

Someone has already done the work, did you look at the android-market-api - they actually have what you want!