May 28, 2009

Google custom search

I have seen Google custom searches on various sites, and I hadn’t really used one. My experience with them wasn’t good, mostly because it didn’t return results that I wanted, or was just confusing and hard to understand.

Looking at the Google custom search website, it becomes apparent that it is completely customisable. (The only exception is that to use one for free you have to have the advertising). You can do all sorts of stuff, including blocking sites, refining searches based on keywords, cutomise colours and so on.

I don’t think people use this tool to their full advantage, but seeing  as about 66% of websites don’t even have a search function (and should) I suppose it’s not too bad.

I would like to use one, but I don’t want to spend too much time setting it up, and leaving the other more important work until the last minute. I’ll see how things go.

Ciao!