Google launched Customized Search last night. From the Google Co-op site:
Build and customize your own search engine
- Specify the sites you want to include in searches.
- Place a search box and search results on your website.
- Customize the look and feel to match your website.
- Invite your community to contribute to the search engine.
- Make money from relevant ads in your search results.
The offering seems to incorporate the previously offered site-flavored search and the search box customizations, now under the Google Co-op umbrella, allowing publishers to build their own vertical search engine for use on web sites or blogs. From Yahoo! News (had to do it):
According to [Jennifer] Simpson [of the Yankee Group], the new tool will build Google's strength in vertical search, a sector of the search-engine market that, until now, has been primarily occupied by small companies specializing in creating search engines for specific topics.
"Smaller companies and niche search have been challenged in the past to find an audience without having to spend a lot," said Simpson. "This does that."
Comprehensive articles here and here, and of course, on Google's Blog.
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