Google lets sites tailor what searches users see

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Internet search leader Google Inc is expanding an existing service to let businesses customize the search results that visitors see when they search for information within their own sites.

Instead of offering visitors to a particular Web site the same slice of search results they find by searching Google.com, the new Google Site Search Service lets Web site owners show previously untracked pages deep inside their sites.

The new Google service is hosted on Google's network of computers instead of requiring customers to install and maintain search equipment of their own. Google aims to improve the search quality of sites with rich content but cluttered ways of finding information lodged within the sites.

Site Search is the new name for Custom Search Business Edition, which Google introduced in late 2006.

It adds business integration features through a machine-readable computer programming interface, the option to turn off advertisements, a more tailored look-and-feel for searching the site and technical support via e-mail or phone.

"Google Site Search is targeted more for businesses and government sites that want search but don't want to display ads," Nitin Mangtani, a product manager in Google's Enterprise division, said in a phone interview.

Hundreds of thousands of Web site publishers rely on Google's AdSense program to offer classic Google Web search. They make money running advertisements from Google's network of online advertisers.

Site Search is an alternative to the Google Search Appliance, which Google offers to sites wishing to maintain their own search services inside their own data centers. Google counts more than 10,000 active Search Appliance customers.

Google is the only mainstream Web search provider to offer businesses a hosted service. By contrast, rivals like Autonomy Corp Plc and FAST, which was recently acquired by Microsoft Corp, require customers to install and manage their search software in-house, Mangtani said.

Other features allow site administrators to add their own customized synonym dictionary, allowing Web site visitors to use site-specific terminology geared to a particular industry or culture. Google Sites also offers users a spell checker.

Webmasters have the option of fully customizing Google Site Search to the look and feel of the Web site, or they can rely on Google's simplified Web page style and make clear the ties to Google's services.

They can also weight search results to favor more recent documents or specific pages such as product catalogs. While the service encourages sites to customize site search results, the service does not affect the ranking of searches done via Google.com, which promises to keep search results impartial.