Google now lets you create your own custom search engine. They have allowed you to do this before but this new program seems to have more flexibility, much like the Google Mini.

I signed up and created a basic search engine for willeitner.org:

You can also set it up so that the results are displayed on a custom page on your site:

The advantage that I can see is for small businesses that may not want to spend the $1,500 for a mini but still wants good search results that are shown on their site. This new feature allows you to customize the search results page so that people are still on your site and not pulled way by Google as much.

Having a search box on you site is vital for good usability. If a site is confusing in any way, or if what the person wants isn’t readily available, then they will leave the site or head to the search box. This now allows you no excuse to not have a search function on your site. You can even make money off of it! Just provide your Adsence account information and the ads that appear with your search results will be credited to you. Unfortunately, this would provide a way for competitors to advertise on your site.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 and is filed under Whatever, Business, Internet, Design and Usability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.