Google is launching its Google Custom Search Engine tomorrow now, which will let users & publishers construct their own specialized Google search indexes made up of specific sites. Publishers and bloggers will be able to use the customizable search engine on their blogs and it will include a revenue sharing structure similar to the current AdSense Google search box offering.
Google’s Vice President of Search Products, Marissa Mayer has commented that Google Custom Search Engine will be “the most significant launch that Google would announce in the final months of this year.”
“We want to make it easy for anyone to create a search engine about all of their favorite topics, without needing a Ph.D.,” said Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience. “Everyone; businesses, organizations, moms, dads, teenagers, and teachers, can harness the power of Google technology to create a personalized search experience that reflects specific knowledge and interests.”
Users of Google Custom Search Engine will be able to select the websites they want to be included in their searches, and add to this list in future by ‘tagging’ websites they visit. Any searches will then return results just from that slice of the Google search index.
Google also said it had created an easy way for users to “paste” a search box for the personalised engine on to their own webpages, so that visitors can carry out searches using their preferred parameters.
Adding a new, more enhanced search revenue model for publishers and the ability to build one’s own Google powered vertical search engine will indeed almost guarantee the popular acceptance of Google’s new foray into Search 2.0.
It’s also interesting to see that Google will be adding tagging to the new Google Custom Search Engine, as they have played with tagging in Google Video, Citations in the Google Toolbar and on Google Images.. expanding the use of the publicly friendly meta definition process within Google.
The custom search engine phenomena was fist brought into the mainstream by the Yahoo Search powered Rollyo and Eurekster Swiki.
This summer Yahoo also rolled out their own Yahoo Search Builder this summer at SES San Jose.
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Update : Google Custom Search Engines have gone live. From Google :
Google Custom Search Engines empower users to choose which pages they want to include in their index, how the content should be prioritized, whether others can contribute to their index, and what the search results page will look like. With this launch, we’re extending the power of Google search beyond Google.com.
A number of sites have already created Custom Search Engines. For example, Intuit’s JumpUp.com site, which provides information and resources to small businesses, is combining a Custom Search Engine with its years of experience in small business to provide the most useful resources on the Web to its users. Or take RealClimate.org, a site that offers expert opinion on the science of climate change. They have created a searchable subset of the Web to provide reliable scientific information to its visitors. In a more everyday use of the product, users can create search engines pointing their friends to sites about their favorite pop stars and place them on their personal homepages.
Here’s how a Custom Search Engine works: organizations or individuals simply go to www.google.com/coop/cse and select the websites or pages they’d like to include in their search index. Users can choose to restrict their search results to include only those pages and sites, or they can give those pages and sites higher priority and ranking within the larger Google index for their site. Users can then customize the look, feel and functionality of their search engine.
Custom Search Engines are monetized through the Google AdSense program so they can even generate revenue with it. Universities, non-profits and government organizations can choose not to run ads on their search results if they’d rather not.
Examples of Google Custom Search Engines in action.
Hattip to Eric Bailargeon
