« Thomson to drop Learning – it's goodbye to education and library operations | Main | Think tanks demand “private right to copy” »
Google's Custom Search Engine
Google reminds me of an atomic explosion. When these bombs go off, they suck everything in sight into a giant mushroomn cloud which then rains radioactive particles in its shadow. Google seems to suck in all the innovation it can and then spatter the world with an endless array of 'free' services. A bit frightening, but jolly good for users and advertisers alike.
This week, it announced another useful facility, its Google Co-op Custom Search Engine which you can embed straight into your web pages or blog (same thing, I know). If you have a Google account, you create a search box which restricts (or prioritises, but I haven't made that work yet) searching to your favourite sites or parts of sites. Instead of an unfocused deluge, your users have a good chance of finding what they want at the first attempt.
If you have multiple websites, forums, blogs and so on, then you can cast a net around them and provide access to any of this content through a single Google-style search box.
Or, if you are part of a special interest group, you can give the group a one-stop-shop for searching all the relevant websites. Not only that, but you can give colleagues permission to add their own suitable sites.
You can also provide 'refinement labels' to help users further filter their results. You can customise the result pages to reflect your own house style. But, you won't be surprised to learn, you will be obliged to carry a Google graphic and allow advertisements to appear.
It's neat. It's easy to use. And it provides Google with even more fissionable material.
PS It's English-only at the moment.
Nice fluff piece,
//A bit frightening, but jolly good//
//This week, it announced another useful facility//
//your users have a good chance of finding//
Notice you don't mention that web sites have to also deliver Google pay-per-click ads with this service and it offers no real differentiation than using Google API service.
40 years in software development and publishing, oy?
Posted by :ed | October 27, 2006 1:20 PM
Nothing like a bit of misrepresentation then an attack is there?
I actually said: "for users and advertisers alike." I also said "and allow advertisements to appear" - most people would read that as an advertising opportunity. ie in the results.
Why should people use the API service if they can use something designed to be easy?
40 years in software has taught me not to be snobbish about ease of use.
Posted by :David Tebbutt | October 27, 2006 3:18 PM
Just wanted to correct Ed, who does not seem to fathom the difference between Google Custom Search and its pitiful APIs. Google Custom Search allows you to take the Google Search Engine, massage it to fit your needs - including inclusion, ranking, look and feel, etc. and then with no coding, put it on your web site. When you can do that with the API, maybe Google will hire you as an engineer.
I agree with David: this is one of those atomic explosions that has been a long time coming for Google Search, and what a knockout blow it will be for its competitors. I recently wrote a script to find all the Custom Search Engines that have been created since launch of this service exactly 1 week back and found roughly 50,000 of these on the web. I tried several of them and was amazed at how powerful these search engines can be.
Some more digging led to find that the creator of this product: Shashi Seth, delivered exactly such a knockout blow for eBay about 3 years back, when he delivered the entire eBay Platform via XML APIs, and within 1 year was bringing in 40% of eBays revenues. I am willing to bet that Google will see a similar (maybe not as large in volume - but similar end effect) effect with search and soon small time players like AOL and Ask will be overtaken in traffic by just these Custom Search Engines.
Posted by :Ian Glock | October 31, 2006 6:21 PM