Google Launches Personal Search
Google has thrown its (very large) hat into the personal search engine space with the launch of Google Co-Op Custom Search Engines.
The Custom Search Engines (CSE) are similar to those provided by Rollyo, Yahoo Search Builder and Eurekster. You create a CSE by entering a series of URLs that you wish Google to index. Google generates code for you to place on your website or blog and, voila, instant vertical search.
Unlike Rollyo, which limits you to 25 sites, Google indicates that there will be no limit to the number of sites you can include in a CSE. And while the search engine results will include Google Adsense ads, you can personalize the presentation of the results page. And, of course, you can't launch a product today without a social software spin, so Google allows you to enable users to contribute sites to your CSE. You also have the choice of restricting the CSE to only those sites you entered, or to include all web results while giving preferred weightings to those sites you have selected.
Google also includes the Google Marker function, a toolbar plugin which allows you to add content to your CSE as easily as you might tag a page in delicious.
As a quick test, I created a content industry CSE in about 5 minutes, including content from various blogs and websites covering the content and technology space. I'll integrate it into the blog later, but for now Update: I've added the CSE to the blog, just above the Rollyo box, so you can test both out and see which results you prefer or you can test it out here.
For more on Google Co-op Custom Search Engines, take a look at posts by John Battelle, Matt Cutts, Steve Rubel and Michael Arrington.
Barry,
Loved the collection you put together. For someone interested in the content space, you made it very easy to find exactly what I wanted.
Will the url for this search stick around? And, if you make changes to your content sources will they be reflected in this url?
Thanks - Laurie
Posted by: Laurie Webster-Saft | October 25, 2006 at 06:06 PM
Thanks, Laurie.
I'll keep the search engine at this URL for now until I give it a permanent home. It's also available on the left navigation bar as "Google Content Search".
And, yes, as I add new sources to the engine, they'll automatically be included in the results. In fact, today I added about 25 private equity firms specializing in the content space. If you search for "portfolio" you'll quickly see portfolio companies of many of these firms.
--Barry
Posted by: Barry Graubart | October 25, 2006 at 10:35 PM
Barry,
as co-op gets even more famous, there are now tons of cse created.
Since its difficult to find these by search, we thought of creating a directory for cse or websites that have a cse intergrated (only cse by google co-op are accepted).
The directory is free of course and its available at www.coopdir.com
Feel free to submit.
Posted by: Panos | February 07, 2007 at 03:58 AM