Create your own search engine using Google’s co-op platform. You don’t need your own website as Google will host it. You can also put a search box and the search results on your own site. Customize its appearance. Prioritize search results based on your interest. Invite others to participate.
Select ‘Create a Custom Search Engine’ (Note you must have or set-up a Google account)
Specify your search settings:
Basic Information (name, description, metadata, and language)
Sites to Search (websites you’d like to include or give priority in your search engine results)
Preferences (e.g. advertising, collaboration with others)
After you set up the basic engine, you can:
Apply refinements (labels) to websites
Change the look (e.g. colour)
Place the search box and/or results on your website (Code section)
Invite others to contribute (Collaboration section)
You’re done!
Free/Open Source Software
Search the Stanford University website
http://www.stanford.edu/search/
1. Pick a topic
Focus on a specific topic. Building a better search engine assumes that the original search engine is flawed. So a great way to start is to find a flawed set of search results. The most powerful way to improve the search results is to narrow your search and provide a specific context.
2. Pick search terms to test
You may need to do some research to find the best sites. You will definitely need to test your custom search engine when you are finished. So, pick a set of search terms that broadly covers the topic area of your search engine. Breadth is important here, because you want your search engine to provide better results across a wide array of searches.
3. Assemble a list of the best sites.
Use your search terms to dig up the best sites. Start with Google to see what search results you get. Pick out the best sites that meet your purpose (e.g. if your topic is research-related, screen out sites with too much advertising and look for authoritative resources of information). This "Google filtering" step is critical. You don't want your results to be worse then the default result, and by filtering the sites to be included based on your context, you should already be able to offer improved results. Use the other search engines to look for additional sites.
4. Build a custom search engine
Now that you have a set of sites, build your custom search engine. You will need to make certain basic decisions in the process. Bear in mind that you are building this to test it. Don't get too hung up on the decisions at this point. Be prepared to do it at least a few times before you are done.
5. Test against Google's core search.
Now that you’ve built it, test it. Setup side-by-side windows, one with your custom search engine, and one with the standard Google search engine. Try all of your test search terms. Compare the results – where is your search engine better? What is missing? This step can take time. This review process is where you test the decisions you made earlier on.
6. Tweak, test, tweak, test…, until done.
Once you’ve made improvements as a result of testing, tweak the list of URLS, and repeat steps 4 and 5 over and over again, until you are done.
7. Get feedback.
Once you have done the best you can, get feedback from others. This is an interactive process.
Google Translate supports 51 languages and 2,550 language pairs (Spanish to English, Spanish to French, etc.) - including all 23 official EU languages. While the company admitted that the translation quality of these newest languages is still a little rough, Google has said this will improve over time.
You can submit a phrase, paragraph or a webpage to have a translation done.
Google has this fascination with numbers. Numbers of all sorts.
It’s simple. Type the sum you want to calculate in the search box and press enter.
If the calculation has a number of different steps, work through them one at a time.
Type the quantity you want to convert and then the measurement you want to convert it to, for example:
32 miles in kilometres
Try it out:
Again, just type in the amount and the currency you want to convert and the currency you want to convert to. If you’re not sure of the currency used in a particular country, use the terms ‘currency’ or ‘money’ instead. For example:
Answer these questions:
Parcel tracking IDs, patents and other specialized numbers can be entered into Google's search box for quick access to information about them. For example, typing a FedEx tracking number will return the latest information on your package. Other special search by number types include:
Give it a try:
Do you have a specialized topic you'd like to keep tabs on? Is there something in the news you'd like to follow? Do you find yourself constantly searching for the same term? Google Alerts might be the answer.
Google Alerts are email updates of the latest news or happening, Google will send you an email when there are new results for your search, so you can keep up to date without constantly running searches for the same words. You just have to select the search terms, type, and frequency.
Search terms: Try to pick a search phrase that is fairly specific and specialized. If your term is too general and popular, such as "money" or "elections," you will end up with way too many results. You're allowed to enter more than one word here, so try to narrow it down a little. Keep in mind that Google Alerts sends you newly indexed results, not every result available on the Web. Sometimes one word really is all you need.
Type: You can search for news, blog entries, videos, webpages, and Google Groups. Or you can search all of them at once by selecting Comprehensive.
Frequency: Specify how often you want to receive Google Alerts. If you are picking a popular item, you may want to restrict this to once a day or once a week. If you pick a fairly obscure term or an item you are following very closely, select ‘as-it-happens’.
Possible uses of Google Alerts include:
monitoring a developing news story
keeping current on a competitor or industry (e.g. medical advances)
getting the latest on a celebrity or your favourite sports teams
Complete the simple form at: http://www.google.com/alerts
Verify that you want the alert by responding to an email from them.
Not getting what you expected?
If the alerts that you are receiving for a particular query are not what you expected, then chances are that the terms you have picked are too broad or include incorrect punctuation. Try performing the same query on the property (Google News, Web, Video, etc.) from where you want to generate the alerts. If the results are too broad, then narrow down your terms. Also try putting quotes around searches with multiple keywords.
If the search returns no results, here are a few other suggestions:
Check your spelling
Try different keywords
Try more general keywords
Try fewer keywords
Use advanced search queries
You need a Google account to monitor and edit your alerts.
Some of the content on this page is derived from a BCLA presentation (April 2009) done by Kay Cahill and Michele Pye.