« Blended Search changes searching behavior | Main | Tweet Clouds »

April 15, 2008

Finding Google custom search engines

I'm a firm fan of Google custom search engines - I've created a lot of them for my site and have embedded them in various places - they're one of the things that Google has done really well. However, when I talk about them on training days one of the questions that often comes up is how to find them. Browsing around today I found Guide To Custom Search Engines (CSEs). This site is not affiliated with Google, and I'm not sure how up to date it is, but it lists a lot of engines in various subject areas, so it might be worth taking a look.

Alternatively, why not use Google to find them for yourself? The base URL is always the same, so you can start with site:google.com inurl:cse inurl:coop This gets you about 48,000 results, and then you can simply add on more terms as needed. Adding 'library' for example reduces the number to 448 engines. I did try librar* as my search term, but Google decided that my search was too similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application and declined to complete it. I got around that by adding in (library OR librarian OR libraries) produced a total of 470 custom search engines.

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8345223b869e200e551eb74ee8834

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Finding Google custom search engines:

Comments

The comments to this entry are closed.

My Photo

My Web 2.0 Weblog

Subscribe!

  • Subscribe!
    Add to any service

British Librarians Blogging

My Flickr photographs

  • www.flickr.com
    This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from Phil Bradley. Make your own badge here.
Blog powered by TypePad