Google-Custom Search Engine

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The latest and most innovative addition to Google Co-op is the
Google Custom Search Engine or CSE. It is useful for both
Webmasters as well as users. CSE enables Webmasters to create
a search engine and place it on their Web site. It is customised
both visually as well as in the search results to reflect the knowl-
edge and interests of the Web site owners. With a CSE, searches
can be limited to a specific set of specialist sites. This enables
user searches on a specific subject area to give more accurate
results, since the query is applied to a highly focused list of spe-
cialist sites. Additionally, if allowed by the CSE creator, commu-
nity members can contribute to the search engine. Webmasters
can even link their AdSense for Search program to generate rev-
enue from the search traffic.
To create your own search engine or see examples of CSEs, go
to www.google.com/coop/cse/overview.
To create your own CSE, click on the “Create a Search
Engine” button to get started. In the custom search engine form
specify the required details. In this example we will create a CSE
to search the Digit Magazine Web site. In the list of sites to
include as part of the search engine, we limit ourselves to the
main Digit Web site (thinkdigit.com) and the Digit forum
(thinkdigit.com/forum).
You can also specify (not shown here) whether the entire
Web should be searched with emphasis on these sites or exclu-
sively on these sites. Further, you can specify whether contribu-
tion and collaboration is open to the public or only to invitees.
For the moment, we will limit ourselves to the Digit site and not
allow open collaboration. Accept the terms of service and click
Next.
From the following page, you can run a test search based on
your CSE settings and check to see if the results are satisfactory.
Once you are satisfied with the results, click Finish and you
will be taken to the “My Search Engines” page where you can
further fine-tune the search engine settings.
From the “My Search Engines” page, you can either add the
new CSE as a gadget to your personalised Google Home Page, or
visit the “control panel” to modify and refine the settings, or
visit this search engine’s homepage to run a custom search.
This simple example of the custom search engine demon-
strates the flexibility with which you can create your own
search engines focused on specialist topics or interests.
You can also go to www.google.com/coop/cse/
examples/Latest to see a list of CSEs that are focused on differ-
ent areas of expertise and interest. These CSEs can be added to
your personalised Google Home Page via the “Add to Google”
gadget button.