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"With Yahoo! Search Builder you can create a custom Web search engine by selecting a set of trusted sites to search across or you can tune the search algorithm to the topic of your choice. Beyond Web search, Search Builder includes Site search and News search.
Then generate the code you’ll need to add your search engine to your site. You also have control over the look and feel of the search box and search results page. Voila! Instant search engine!"
It seems interesting even though I think it's not available in other languages so far.
Google were kind enough to give us free site search, the one WITHOUT ads, but when we tested it, it returned more dead supplemental results and long-gone 404s than live pages, so we had to delete it, and use FDSE instead.
If this Y! is ad-free and returns good results we will keep it.
I've just installed it, and it returns no results for any searches of our site. We are in Y!, so perhaps they need a few hours to build a database.
Let's see...
[edited by: Angonasec at 12:06 pm (utc) on Aug. 8, 2006]
I don't think they need time, this is just a simple front end to Y! that is set up to do an advanced search for you website only. I just tried the demo builder and it works for me.
Which is too bad. I have 100+ trusted sites for a particular niche that I would love to be able to search quickly and easily and I know my visitors for that niche would like to be able to do that too.
*Sigh* I look forward to the day of the Web 2.0 of search engines. Wouldn't it be great if you could just add (and subtract) trusted sites to your personal search engine the way you can to a blogroll or del.icio.us? Spam would be a non-factor. Site gets spammy, you delete it from your search engine. You could use your friends search engines to see if they have sites you might like or the search engine of a blogger that you admire.
I thought that at one point in time the search engines were kind of going that way, but I haven't seen anybody doing it well. They are all still trying to please the masses rather than just me (in a global, each person is a "me" sort of sense).
That being said, I could also see a secondary market come about wherein people sell their "subtracted" sites which were spammy in their opinion. People with a reputation would be in high-demand to show their subtraction list. Would be kind of cool unless you're one of the unfortunate publishers to be considered spammy.
The database loads on a project like that would be overwhelming.
Then factor in that your algo could be less agressive (and require less work) because people would most likely choose sites they liked, which probably would not be junk. (yeah, some but if that's what the people want...)
If 8 years ago, the web had looked like it does today, most people probably would have said the same about ranking sites based on links.
Not to mention, it would only be useful to be able to subtract sites. In order to add sites, you have to have a means to find them and, hence, the whole point of a search engine.
All 100+ of my sites did not comes from finding them on a search engine. They came from links gathered from blogs and me wandering around other people sites. Plus, that's the beauty in having access to other people's search engines. If I can't find it in my search engine, I could go to a freind's or blogger's search engine and find new sites that way.
It would be more like the "good old days" of the internet when linking worked because you linked because the site was cool not because it gave them PR.
I have to tell you, as of late I have been disgusted with all 3 major search engines. I can't find anything. I know the info is out there and most of the time I am looking for documentation for facts I already know.
I know some people love wikipeadia, but I don't and I hate that they come up for every search I do. But someone else may feel different.
They are trying to please everybody with a one size fits all algo and it is not working
Right now, I have these 100 sites that I know is packed with info but have very little pull with the search engines. They are small sites, hobby sites where information is posted out of love. But they don't know anything about SEO and probably wouldn't care anyway. I can only search them with the power of my own memory. My memory isn't that good.
The search engine that give me the power to choose my own trusted sites, as many as I want, will have my love and adoration and I will sing their praises to every person I know.
I have 100+ trusted sites for a particular niche that I would love to be able to search quickly and easily and I know my visitors for that niche would like to be able to do that too.
Not to hijack the news about Yahoo!, but if anyone is looking, WebmasterWorld talked about the gigablast offering back in 2004 [webmasterworld.com].
It now lives at [gigablast.com...] and allows up to 500 web sites. I've used it a number of times (the XML version) to build site searches and to build niche searches, although I remember it only allowing 100 sites, so it looks like they've beefed it up, perhaps in response to Yahoo?
Confused,
Brian
Anyway, this will not going to be a killer. What we need is an engine that is able to guess the users intend and gives them tools to specify their intent in an intuitive manner.
I've emailed them to see what the problem is.
I'd like this to work, but if it doesn't it will have to come off our site.
Basically, there are a few things you should be aware of:
1.) That there are no quotes around the URLs that you entered when entering the domains to restrict your search to.
2.) That there are no commas separating the URLs that you entered when entering the domains to restrict your search to.
3.) You don't even need to add the www prefix when entering an URL i.e. you are better off simply entering yahoo.com.
If #1 and #2 were an issue for your Search Builder box they should be fixed and no further action is required, but let us know if this did not do the trick.
Please keep the feedback and questions coming,
-Ariel Seidman (Yahoo! Search Product Management)
Will Y! be having the option to have the serp adverts removed for NFP sites?
I have completely customized it. Good one. However, the results page has yahoo ads and it would be great if they can share the revenue generated from this with the publisher.
This can be linked with YPN if the publisher already has it and the shared revenue can be reflected in the YPN account.
Not sure, if yahoo is considering this?
Another suggestion... I guess there will be the search keyword/phrase tag cloud below the search box. is that so? If not having one customisable tag cloud [displaying the searched parameters would be great and those tags linked to the searches performed.
Yet another suggestion... ability to customise the entire look and feel of the search results page atleast to match my site's look and feel.
Thanks & Cheers
