Would you like to search only a specific list of web sites? Do you have your own web site and would like to add a search feature? With the new service from Google, you can create a search engine tailored to your needs
I suspect the most common use of the Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) is to create search engines for your own web site. That search engine can search your own site or a list of other sites. For instance, if you publish a web site about Irish genealogy, you could publish an "Irish genealogy search engine" that searches a list of sites that you specify.
To see this kind of search in action, go to this newsletter's web site at http://www.eogn.com and scroll down the right side to the section labeled "Search This Site for Past Articles." The search box you see there was created with Google Custom Search Engine. It searches all of the www.eogn.com web site as well as the affiliated Encyclopedia of Genealogy web site at www.eogen.com.
Creating the HTML code for your web page is simple: Google does it for you. Simply specify a few parameters, such as height and width to the search box, web sites to be searched, etc. and Google will generate the code for you. Then all you do is copy-and-paste the code into the appropriate place on your web page(s).
The Google Custom Search Engine is available in two versions. One is free of charge but displays advertising in the results, very similar to searches on Google's own site at www.google.com. The second option eliminates the ads but charges money for the searches. Google also offers options in the paid version to place results from your own web site higher in the results than "hits" from other web sites. Prices start at $100 per year for low activity web site and can reach several thousand dollars a year for very active sites.
For more information about the Google Custom Search Engine, look at http://www.google.com/coop/cse/.
