CSE News
The popularity of Custom Search Engines (CSEs) appears to be on the rise. We have looked at about 500 so far and what strikes us is the amazing diversity shown in what is being created. We soon discovered that it would be nice to have an easy way of keeping track of what we had seen and where we had been. Google then introduced the 'Add to Google' functionality in the form of a little gadget button shown on each root CSE page hosted at Google.
Soon after followed a gadget in the form of a Custom Search Engine Console that lets you access your own CSE creations from your personalised Google Homepage. So now, you have the ability to 'Bookmark' your favourite CSEs on your Google Homepage and access your own CSE creations.
Clearly, we hope that the CSE Links website will become a popular place for CSE creators to show off their wares. We are resisting the temptation to add the hundreds of CSEs that we have found so far ourselves, preferring CSE creators to become a part of this community instead, as we believe that once you have the CSE bug then you will not stop at a single CSE. We can foresee that as the number of CSEs listed here increases then the 'Search' function on CSE links would become a very useful way for people to find new and interesting CSEs. It would also encourage CSE creators to write a far more comprehensive description of their CSEs as a means of more people finding them via the CSE Links directory route. How long would it be before someone asked 'How can we search CSE Likns from our Google Homepage?'. The reality is that it has already been asked and we have already created a Google gadget that you can now add to your collection of gadgets on your Google Homepage. You can access the Gadget by clicking the 'Add to Google' button next to the CSE Links logo. Try it! You can also add individual CSEs to your Google Homepage by clicking the 'Add to Google' button shown within individual CSE listings shown on the CSE Links website. Do not forget that you can rate each CSE and leave comments for the creator too by accessing the detailed listings using the 'Ratings/Comments' links.
So, it looks like it is all coming together really nicely for everyone but if you go just one step further and create a tabbed layout within your Google Homepage you really can pimp your Google Homepage!
To give you an idea of what a simple set up looks like combining all the current 'Add to Google' opportunities together, take a look at the image below.
The more CSEs we get listed, the more useful our gadget becomes and the more your Google Homepage gets pimped!
Paul and John
Soon after followed a gadget in the form of a Custom Search Engine Console that lets you access your own CSE creations from your personalised Google Homepage. So now, you have the ability to 'Bookmark' your favourite CSEs on your Google Homepage and access your own CSE creations.
Clearly, we hope that the CSE Links website will become a popular place for CSE creators to show off their wares. We are resisting the temptation to add the hundreds of CSEs that we have found so far ourselves, preferring CSE creators to become a part of this community instead, as we believe that once you have the CSE bug then you will not stop at a single CSE. We can foresee that as the number of CSEs listed here increases then the 'Search' function on CSE links would become a very useful way for people to find new and interesting CSEs. It would also encourage CSE creators to write a far more comprehensive description of their CSEs as a means of more people finding them via the CSE Links directory route. How long would it be before someone asked 'How can we search CSE Likns from our Google Homepage?'. The reality is that it has already been asked and we have already created a Google gadget that you can now add to your collection of gadgets on your Google Homepage. You can access the Gadget by clicking the 'Add to Google' button next to the CSE Links logo. Try it! You can also add individual CSEs to your Google Homepage by clicking the 'Add to Google' button shown within individual CSE listings shown on the CSE Links website. Do not forget that you can rate each CSE and leave comments for the creator too by accessing the detailed listings using the 'Ratings/Comments' links.
So, it looks like it is all coming together really nicely for everyone but if you go just one step further and create a tabbed layout within your Google Homepage you really can pimp your Google Homepage!
To give you an idea of what a simple set up looks like combining all the current 'Add to Google' opportunities together, take a look at the image below.
The more CSEs we get listed, the more useful our gadget becomes and the more your Google Homepage gets pimped!
Paul and John
Example Google Homepage
posted on Nov 9, 2006
Yet more good news in terms of our search engine positions with significant rises for various search terms on both Google and Yahoo (come on MSN, you are lagging behind on the indexing front). We have already seen quite a few visitors as a result of our natural search engine positions - Google leads the way, as one would expect!
We are still optimising the site for the search engines but in our quest for natural visitors we are off to a bit of a flyer. All we need to do now is get more custom search engines listed by their creators - if only there was an easy way to communicate with them. Any ideas for us?
Some new functionality on the site is almost complete - we think that you will like it - more news on this in a couple of days time! Once again, please pass the word around about us, if you can.
John and Paul
We are still optimising the site for the search engines but in our quest for natural visitors we are off to a bit of a flyer. All we need to do now is get more custom search engines listed by their creators - if only there was an easy way to communicate with them. Any ideas for us?
Some new functionality on the site is almost complete - we think that you will like it - more news on this in a couple of days time! Once again, please pass the word around about us, if you can.
John and Paul
posted on Nov 7, 2006
*** NEWSFLASH***
Good news for both ourselves and our CSE suggesters in that it looks like we are already No 1 on lots of Google datacentres for the phrase 'CSE Links' - not bad going for a website that has been going for just over a week or so! We are still building and optimising the site for the search engines but this is a promising start in our quest for natural visitors. It is also quite pleasing that our site is also functioning as planned. Not too many issues so far, thankfully. More news in a couple of days as we have some new functionality to finalise. Please pass the word around about us, if you can.
John and Paul
Good news for both ourselves and our CSE suggesters in that it looks like we are already No 1 on lots of Google datacentres for the phrase 'CSE Links' - not bad going for a website that has been going for just over a week or so! We are still building and optimising the site for the search engines but this is a promising start in our quest for natural visitors. It is also quite pleasing that our site is also functioning as planned. Not too many issues so far, thankfully. More news in a couple of days as we have some new functionality to finalise. Please pass the word around about us, if you can.
John and Paul
posted on Nov 3, 2006
We are about a week into playing with Google's custom search engine creator and from our monitoring of CSE activity on the net then it is clear that there are many interesting creations. I think that a lot of people are still coming to terms with what is and is not possible and I am sure that the functionality will improve over time. This will only serve to make this powerful beastie even more powerful.
With regards to this particular site, it would be so easy for us to add the several hundred CSEs that we have unearthed so far but we are trying to encourage CSE owners to join us as Editors of their own CSEs as we believe that the owner can far better describe their CSEs than we can.
We are also working on some new functionality that we think will be useful to CSE owners. As soon as this is ready we will commmunicate with our Editors directly as well putting the word out on the net. Watch this space!
For now though, if you are reading this please encourage your friends and colleagues to add their CSEs to our directory. Listing is FREE and does not require a reciprocal link. We really do want to build the most comprehensive picture of CSEs on the net but we cannot do this without the goodwill and support of many others.
In closing, we would like to say thank you to our first few submitters and as we grow we will remember those who helped us get going.
Best wishes,
Paul and John
With regards to this particular site, it would be so easy for us to add the several hundred CSEs that we have unearthed so far but we are trying to encourage CSE owners to join us as Editors of their own CSEs as we believe that the owner can far better describe their CSEs than we can.
We are also working on some new functionality that we think will be useful to CSE owners. As soon as this is ready we will commmunicate with our Editors directly as well putting the word out on the net. Watch this space!
For now though, if you are reading this please encourage your friends and colleagues to add their CSEs to our directory. Listing is FREE and does not require a reciprocal link. We really do want to build the most comprehensive picture of CSEs on the net but we cannot do this without the goodwill and support of many others.
In closing, we would like to say thank you to our first few submitters and as we grow we will remember those who helped us get going.
Best wishes,
Paul and John
posted on Nov 1, 2006
Just a few of the reported quotes so far make for some interesting reading. It will be interesting to see how things develop but for now the latest we have found follows.
Google
"We want to make it easy for anyone to create a search engine about all of their favorite topics, without needing a Ph.D.," said Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience. "Everyone – businesses, organizations, moms, dads, teenagers, and teachers – can harness the power of Google technology to create a personalized search experience that reflects specific knowledge and interests."
RealClimate
"RealClimate.org is a site that tries to give credible expert opinion on the science of climate change. Unfortunately, since this topical subject has become rather politicized, the quality of information available on the web is very variable, ranging from the excellent to the atrocious. With the Custom Google Search facility, we are able to create a searchable subset of the web that in our expert judgment provides solid and reliable information. Hopefully, it will allow users to get to the good stuff faster, without some of the confusion that currently occurs." – Gavin Schmidt, RealClimate
Macworld
"Macworld is excited to implement Google's Custom Search as our site's search engine," said Jason Snell, Vice President and Editorial Director of Mac Publishing, LLC. "Implementing Google Custom Search for our site took very little time, and we expect it to improve our site's traffic by dramatically improving our users' search experience."
JumpUp.com from Intuit
"Finding the most useful resources on the web is a challenge for small businesses," said Lisa Gevelber, general manager of Quicken Small Business. "That's why we created JumpUp.com and added Google Custom Search Engine. We combined Google's technology with our nearly 15 years of small business experience to evaluate and select the most useful small business resources on the web and provide them to JumpUp.com users."
Penton Media, Inc.
"Utilizing the Google Custom Search Engine, Excavator gets immediate results for the user while acting as a filter for unwanted information. The topic targeting and site filtering has created an all-in-one opportunity to find independent Microsoft news, product information, and resources that have been technically vetted by Windows IT Media content experts," said Chad Phelps, Group Director of eMedia, Windows IT Pro / SQL Server Magazine / MSD2D. "We have an unparalleled network of sites available to us, all of which we've made accessible through Excavator in conjunction with the Google Custom Search Engine."
"We want to make it easy for anyone to create a search engine about all of their favorite topics, without needing a Ph.D.," said Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience. "Everyone – businesses, organizations, moms, dads, teenagers, and teachers – can harness the power of Google technology to create a personalized search experience that reflects specific knowledge and interests."
RealClimate
"RealClimate.org is a site that tries to give credible expert opinion on the science of climate change. Unfortunately, since this topical subject has become rather politicized, the quality of information available on the web is very variable, ranging from the excellent to the atrocious. With the Custom Google Search facility, we are able to create a searchable subset of the web that in our expert judgment provides solid and reliable information. Hopefully, it will allow users to get to the good stuff faster, without some of the confusion that currently occurs." – Gavin Schmidt, RealClimate
Macworld
"Macworld is excited to implement Google's Custom Search as our site's search engine," said Jason Snell, Vice President and Editorial Director of Mac Publishing, LLC. "Implementing Google Custom Search for our site took very little time, and we expect it to improve our site's traffic by dramatically improving our users' search experience."
JumpUp.com from Intuit
"Finding the most useful resources on the web is a challenge for small businesses," said Lisa Gevelber, general manager of Quicken Small Business. "That's why we created JumpUp.com and added Google Custom Search Engine. We combined Google's technology with our nearly 15 years of small business experience to evaluate and select the most useful small business resources on the web and provide them to JumpUp.com users."
Penton Media, Inc.
"Utilizing the Google Custom Search Engine, Excavator gets immediate results for the user while acting as a filter for unwanted information. The topic targeting and site filtering has created an all-in-one opportunity to find independent Microsoft news, product information, and resources that have been technically vetted by Windows IT Media content experts," said Chad Phelps, Group Director of eMedia, Windows IT Pro / SQL Server Magazine / MSD2D. "We have an unparalleled network of sites available to us, all of which we've made accessible through Excavator in conjunction with the Google Custom Search Engine."
posted on Oct 30, 2006
Google took another step towards internet domination Tuesday, launching a custom search engine that allows users to choose which web pages to search.
Accessed through Google's Co-op site, the Google Custom Search Engine, also allows users to search the entire web but emphasize specific sites, create a search engine that focuses on an individual site or search only specified pages. Other options govern the look of results and how content is prioritized.
The Silicon Valley company, which already carries out half of the world's web searches, said the new product would be free to users. Websites that carried their own custom search engine would be allowed to connect to the company's Adsense advertising system and share the revenue with Google.
Search specialists said that the new offering made sense because traditional Google results were often too varied and carried results from too many sites.
'We want to make it easy for anyone to create a search engine about all of their favourite topics', said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google.
Accessed through Google's Co-op site, the Google Custom Search Engine, also allows users to search the entire web but emphasize specific sites, create a search engine that focuses on an individual site or search only specified pages. Other options govern the look of results and how content is prioritized.
The Silicon Valley company, which already carries out half of the world's web searches, said the new product would be free to users. Websites that carried their own custom search engine would be allowed to connect to the company's Adsense advertising system and share the revenue with Google.
Search specialists said that the new offering made sense because traditional Google results were often too varied and carried results from too many sites.
'We want to make it easy for anyone to create a search engine about all of their favourite topics', said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google.
posted on Oct 28, 2006
Link to CSE Links using the code below
or deep link to the page you are currently viewing.
or deep link to the page you are currently viewing.