Google WebSearch is live!

[hooloovoo22]

Along with additional channels, a preview tool, additional language support, a new ad layout and some other account changes you have to agree to.

Same as before you see everything once you login and agree to terms.

Anxiously awaiting Jenstar's recap ;)

[jenkers]

I'm seriously thinking about adding this to a particular site but share the worries of other people here - size and colour of search box, pretty cruddy looking results page etc.

Surely the earnings from this will be lower:

unless I have completely misunderstood, G track the impressions from the image next to the search box.

Your CTR is when someone performs a search, but you only get paid if someone clicks on a paid advertisement on the results page. Therefore I'd expect the CPC to be considerably lower then Adsense, if people are getting 30% of their Adsense revenue from this then that suggests it is working extremely well (if I've completely misunderstood how the system works I apologise in advance).

Also, I'd imagine that the Google 'charges'; will be taken off at the same time - but like the earnings they will never let us know the details.

[arubicus]

"unless I have completely misunderstood, G track the impressions from the image next to the search box."

No. This isn't correct or else my impressions would about 500 times than that of what they report. It is probably based on searchs or ad groups shown.

"Your CTR is when someone performs a search, but you only get paid if someone clicks on a paid advertisement on the results page. Therefore I'd expect the CPC to be considerably lower then Adsense, if people are getting 30% of their Adsense revenue from this then that suggests it is working extremely well (if I've completely misunderstood how the system works I apologise in advance)."

Impressions are when someone searches and ads show up. A click in the reports is when someone clicks on an ad. Clicks divided by impressions which give you a percentage -> CTR. EPC would "appear" to be affected in your example above because you are adding in non-ad clicks. Adsense stats don't count non-ad clicks. At least this is my understanding.

Which is surprisingly high in my opinion. There just isn't enough data to support this nor enough searches as of yet since I am just testing.

[jenkers]

thanks for that. That makes much more sense - guess I was just being a bit dense and confusing things.

Will be nice to see how things shape up with this.

[IanCP]

Just thought that I'd chime in.

This is not so much an original feature [WebSearch], I've had it installed on my sites for several years, especially since many free alternatives stop at 100 or so pages on your site.

Now it might pay me something?

Along with the already AdSense largesse?

I can't believe it.

On the down side, the new code doesn't work compared to the old. AdSense will rectify that.

More money?

[bether2]

Where do you find the WebSearch code? I'm a registered AdSense user but for the life of me I can't find the WebSearch code.

Go to Account Information, click Products link, and subscribe to websearch. Then a tab will show up for "Search Settings."

[bnhall]

FYI, after 3 days, I'm seeing WebSEarch CTR pretty much line with what I see with Adsense, although EPC is about 10% of my AdSense EPC.

[ken_b]

although EPC is about 10% of my AdSense EPC.

Posts in a couple of Websearch threads have mentioned very low EPC from Websearch clicks.

Anyone getting the same EPC as they get from adsnse clicks, or better EPC from Websearch?

[europeforvisitors]

FYI, after 3 days, I'm seeing WebSEarch CTR pretty much line with what I see with Adsense, although EPC is about 10% of my AdSense EPC.

My search EPC is quite low, too, but CTR is about 5 times my content CTR for the month to date.

Bad news: Only a small percentage of my visitors use search, so income from AdSense Search is likely to be a tiny fraction of my revenues from content ads.

[annej]

On the old free Google Search I was able to list two different domains that could be searched. Is there any way to do this with the new AdSense search? Better yet I'd like people to be able to search both domains at once.

[jgold454]

I'm seeing much higher click thru rates, 20% - 25%, but the EPC is next to nothing compared to my regular Adsense EPC. I'm gonna give it a little time to see if I'm just redirecting my traffic to a lower EPC channel and costing myself some significant revenue!

[europeforvisitors]

I hope Google incorporates "site-flavored search" into AdSense Search (and Google SiteSearch, for that matter) ASAP.

I've already linked to it from my search page as another option for my readers, just because it's so useful to the kind of novice searcher who searches on broad terms like "europe" or "japan" or "sydney" rather than "europe travel" or "japan tourist information" or "sydney hotels."

Site-Flavored Google Search
[google.com...]

[Lpe04]

I don't see why everyone is so afraid of altering the site search code. For one thing, Google should understand that if they want webmasters to use their search, they are going to have to allow them to fit the code into their page. I think they are just saying this to avoid abuse and fraud from malicious programmers altering the code. And I don't see how Google will be able to know if code is altered anyway, they will only be able to tell if fraudulent clicks are being produced.

Another thing is yes, google should have a header and footer option to allow you to integrate the search into your site if they would like more webmasters to participate. I was already using a site search powered by the Google API, which integrated into my site nicely, while this one looks very unprofessional. I am still not sure which one to use as this one does have the option of providing revenue, but at a lower EPC, is it really worth sending vistors to competitors sites?

[blaze]

Checking the referrer page for the appropiate HTML is pretty trivial. Do you really want to risk losing your AdSense account?

[skuba]

Any response from google if we can at leat change stuff like background color?

Thanks

[bnhall]

I wrote to them about reducing the text box length, they replied I could do that as well as insert <br>'s between the logo, field and button.

So - I'd say - ask 'em if they mind. If they do, they'll let you know :-)

[skuba]

Yes, I belive that changing visualially is not a big deal. They won't cancel your adsense account. They would let you know and tell you to change it.
Then if you insist in going against the rules, then they might cancel the account.

[Calculus]

So do we have a definitive answer as to whether they can tell if the look of the search option is altered? For example shortening the search box and placing the submit button below the text box.

I just altered mine and now it looks really good. 133 pixels wide so fits perfectly down the right hand side. Jazzed up the look slightly as well.

[ken_b]

You need to email Google and ask for approval for any changes to the websearch.

[internut]

I put the question to Google's technical department to see if I could slightly alter the background colour so it fits with the uniform mustard tint on all my pages (#FEFEF5). I got the following response today (23/6):

"We do allow limited customization of the WebSearch code with written permission from Google. At this time, however, publishers are not permitted to modify the background color of the WebSearch box. Please do not modify the code in this manner."

Frustrating, but there you have it.

[yump]

Because we can't really get the box to fit / look right in sensible places on our content pages, we're going to try our own style link to a separate page which has the search on, because we know a web-search is going to be useful for our visitors.

However, we have emailed Google because technically this search page doesn't have much content on it and the TOS say the search box page should.

Will be interesting to see the response.

[Jettie]

Yump,

Europeforvisitors did the same sort of thing ...

europeforvisitors - 7:33 pm on June 18, 2004 (utc +2)

Lipik, thanks for pointing that out, but I'm not displaying the search box on an empty page. The TOS state, "Each Web page(s) that contains a Search Box must also contain other content related to Your Site," and my search page does.

My latest implementation of the search page includes a table of contents with links to the main menus of my site. So having a separate search page (rather than a search box on every page) allows me to provide the equivalent of a top-level site map for my main site and my "sites within the site."

BTW, it's easy to see why Google requires that the search box be on a page that contains other content related to one's site. If there were no such requirement, we'd see massive sites that consisted of nothing but keywords and search boxes.

[skuba]

"Each Web page(s) that contains a Search Box must also contain other content related to Your Site," and my search page does.

WHat if I use frames? THe search will be on an empty page, but as part of a webpage with lots of content on the other frames?

I put on an empty frame on my site.

Thanks

[yump]

Jettie,

Thanks for that - have just read efv's post.

efv if you're watching, I've been wondering for a while where to put a site map on our site!

You can send me your consultancy bill later.
;-)

[Jettie]

WHat if I use frames? THe search will be on an empty page, but as part of a webpage with lots of content on the other frames?

I put on an empty frame on my site.

I was planning to do so too ...
My site is build in frames, sometimes two, sometimes three on a page.
hope to get some answers on this :)