Google releases customizable search

A new Google tool will let people use Google's search platform to create search engines focused on the content of their choice.

With the Google Custom Search Engine, announced by the company on Monday, Web site and blog publishers can provide custom results most relevant to their readers, incorporating a site's online community and its ability to provide contextual ads. The customized search engines can also be tailored to aesthetically match any Web site.

The search engine can be customized quickly by choosing keywords and a list of sites the publisher wants included in the search index. These can be the only sites searched, or simply the ones with the highest priority. Alternately, users can exclude sites from the search index.

After entering the information, a line of code will appear. The custom search engine can be hosted on a user's site. Currently, anyone can put a Google search box on their site, but the results are hosted by Google.com.

Instead of the classic blue text on white background familiar to Googlers, Web site publishers can make the search results match the motif of their own site. For instance, a Los Angeles Lakers' blog could return results swathed in purple and gold.

Users can utilize other features as well, but doing so adds more time to the customization process. The custom search product lets new and old AdSense customers combine their custom search results and split the ad revenue with Google.

Custom Search also has the Google Marker tool, which allows sites to be immediately added or restricted from the search index. This tool can be set to allow only the site's publisher to exercise this option while surfing the Web, or invite a few people, an entire community or random visitors to do the same.

Yahoo has its own similar Yahoo Search Builder to let Web users create custom search indexes.

Google says the Custom Search Engine will expand internationally in the next several weeks.

[PutchSearch]

A Google Custom Search Engine Experiment

Thanks for the heads up!

Upon checking this out, three features stood out:
1) You can exclude sites that you do not want in the results
2) You can easily do so using the Google Marker
3) Anyone can volunteer to help

So we decided to throw up an experiment to encourage everyone to mark spam sites to be excluded from search results.

Working together as a community we may be able to radically improve the quality of the search results (or perhaps just get in a blacklisting war?)

The result is Putch - <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.putch.com" target="_newWindow">http://www.putch.com</a>

[kamchoor]

Wow - I did not think I'd ever see Google copy Microsoft

Analysis:
You are hearing it here first folks but I'll say it like it is.

Last week (or at least that's when I learned about this), Microsoft released the exact same concept as part of Live.com. I created a custom search myself.

Today, I see Google copying their innovation.

For as long as I can recall, Micrsoft copied other people's ideas and pushed it down through its marketing channels/community base. Today, we am seeing Google do the exact same thing.

What's interesting is that Micrsoft, no longer the Big Kid on the street, must innovate to survive. While Google, the new Big Kid on the block ,finds it easier to buyout or copy ideas to keep it's lead.

I always thought Google more geared towards the Blue Ocean strategy and not Red like Uncle Billy.

Very very interesting, no doubt.

[kamchoor]

I Stand Corrected

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/index.php?p=345" target="_newWindow">http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/index.php?p=345</a>

Google came up with this first! - not Uncle Billy.

Google's 'originality'

Other than the search engine and its adserving technology, pretty much everything google has comes from the outside (Google Earth, 'Writely', GooTube, etc).

[ITsover]

So now all the wackjobs and purists can blacklist anything on the net??

hmmph...