Google Custom Search Engines Open Worlds of Potential - Build it…
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So how do you build your very own search engine? There isn’t enough room in one short article for me to take you through the whole process; at best, I can give you an overview of the options, information, and interface that Google offers. To quote Google’s site, when you build a custom search engine, you can:
- Place a search box and search results on your website.
- Specify or prioritize the sites you want to include in searches.
- Customize the look and feel to match your website.
- Invite your community to contribute to the search engine.
Google has an excellent link to documentation for its custom search engine (http://google.com/coop/docs/cse/) which includes an FAQ and other materials you’ll want to read before you attempt to build your own engine. But let’s say you’re the sort that prefers to simply dive in. What will you find?
First of all, you need to have some kind of Google account. Assuming you have one, you can go to the Google Co-op link for new search engines (http://google.com/coop/manage/cse/) where you’ll see a number of text boxes and radio buttons. I’m sorry if the images are a little blurry, and that I couldn’t fit everything into one image, but it’s too much information for one browser screen.
On this part of the page, Google is asking for basic information. You have to name your search engine (I resisted the urge to name mine something like “Fred”) and describe it. Then you choose the keywords on which you want it to focus. I thought I’d build one focused on SEO, and limit it to one site; this was only a test after all. I discovered that there is a character limit in the search engine keywords box, so choose wisely when you build yours.
Scrolling down, you can put URLs into the next text box, one per line. At your option, your search engine will either search only those URLs, or the entire web but with a focus on the URLs you specify.
You’ll notice a reference to Google Marker in this section. That’s something you can add to your web browser that makes it easy for you to add and label sites for your custom search engine. It’s as easy as adding it to your favorites or bookmarks. When you find a page you want to add, you just click on Google Marker – and the nice thing is, you can choose to include OR exclude the entire site, or just that one page. So if you’re creating a search engine for a website on the science of global warming, and stumble across some sites that deliver a highly politicized twist on the topic, eliminating them from your possible results is as easy as hitting a couple of radio buttons. You can also label sites and pages with Google Marker.
The Collaborate with Others radio button unleashes the potential to make this a truly social search engine. You can choose to work on the search engine yourself, or you can allow others to volunteer to add to yours. You always have the final say over volunteers; you can accept them or reject them, and you can even reject them after accepting them (though all of their contributions are taken out of your search engine if you do so). If you just want to invite others rather than have them volunteer, you receive a limited number of invitations to send out (about 100). It’s all covered in the CSE FAQ.
The next screen lets you actually try out your search engine with your very own search box. If you like your results, you can click “Finish,” but even then you’re not done. You get links to your engine’s home page, control panel, and a “delete” link if you don’t want to keep it. The control panel looks very much like the page you started with, and allows you to make changes.
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