SAN FRANCISCO -- Google announced on Monday that bloggers and website operators were free to customize its powerful search engine and put it on their Internet pages complete with money-making ads.
Google Custom Search Engine provided online tools to tailor query boxes for websites or blogs in a guided step-by-step process its creators promised would take only minutes.
"This is a new direction for Google," group product manager Shashi Seth said in a telephone press conference. "We are opening Google's search platform."
People customizing search engines can select which sites they want scanned and have the option of reaping a percentage of the online advertising that arrives with query results, according to Google.
Schools, non-profits and government organizations that customize searches for their sites using Google technology can have the advertising blocked.
Soccer fans could customize website search boxes to scan sites related to the World Cup; cancer support groups could focus searches on medical resources; or movie star lovers could target celebrity gossip.
"Custom search engines empower community," Seth said. "What is more powerful than finding information on your website and having the community make it better. In the end, we want the Google platform everywhere."
Search boxes would be featured on individual websites or blogs, but the work would be done on Google servers and share the same security and privacy standards as queries done at the California Internet juggernaut's website.
Those who customize pages can determine where to search, how information is prioritized, the layout of the results and whether visitors to their websites can add to the indexes of places to seek information.
The ability to make money from the search pages through Google AdSense program is "icing on the cake," Seth said.
Google Custom Search Engine was rolled out in the United States on Monday and was available at www.google.com/coop/cse. Google plans to expand the offering internationally in the coming weeks.
Climate change information website RealClimate.org was among those that tested Google's custom engine service before it went public.
Due to the controversial nature of the topic, online information regarding global warming ranges from "excellent to atrocious," said Gavin Schmidt of RealClimate.
"With the Custom Google Search facility, we are able to create a searchable subset of the web that in our expert judgment provides solid and reliable information," Schmidt said in a release.
"Hopefully, it will allow users to get to the good stuff faster, without some of the confusion that currently occurs."
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