Wednesday, 25 October 2006

Google Launches Custom Search Engine for Bloggers, Developers

Google has launched a tool for web site developers and bloggers to create customised search on their pages. Google Custom Search Engine makes it easier to create a custom search engine on any site. Users can make the engine point to the content they want by choosing what pages should be indexed, how the contents should be prioritised, whether others can add to the index, and what the search pages should look like, Google said.

These custom search engines are then monetised through Google AdSense in order to generate revenue for Google and for the sites themselves. Google sites JumpUp.com and RealClimate.org as two sites that have already implemented the custom search successfully. Although both of those sites belong to business, individuals can also use the tool to, for example, 'create search engines pointing their friends to sites about their favourite pop stars and place them on their personal homepages'.

"We want to make it easy for anyone to create a search engine about all of their favourite topics," said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google. The new service is available here.