Helen M. Overland

Implications of Google Custom Search Engine

By: Helen M. Overland, Nov 1, 2006


When I heard about Google co-op, I really wasn't that excited about it, in all honesty. To me, it seemed like a lot of extra effort to reach people that were probably already enthusiastic visitors. But now the grander plan is starting to appear.

By now, you've probably heard that Google has launched it's Custom Search Engine (CSE) service, based on the co-op platform. If you haven't heard about this, now is a good time to catch up. Basically, Google CSE allows a site owner to offer Google search on their site, and to define which sites should be included, or are more relevant, to the subject of the site.

Yes, it's lots of fun, and you can find my own new SEO Search on this site. For a moderately skilled user who understands HTML, setting up a custom search engine should be a fairly easy task. However, there are some serious implications, as well as opportunities, with this new service.

Serious Implications

Search results in general are almost certainly becoming more personalized. Search results can now be based on your search history, preferences, and estimated physical location. With CSE, we now have an additional filter.

By launching the Custom Search service, Google is moving significant control of its search listings out of the hands of its "trusted algorithm", and into the hands of anyone who can edit a webpage. Site owners can define which sites are included, which sites are excluded, as well as which sites should have more "weight" than others. The search box for one single custom engine can be included on more than one site, and even across a wide network and platform of sites.

From a marketers point of view, this means both opportunity and threat, as site owners (or groups) gain this control over organic search results. There is also the possibility that these specialized search engines will help marketers more clearly target potential markets.

From an individuals point of view, it could mean that, in a time when groups who disagree with one another listen to each other less and less, they could be about to communicate even less often. After all... who needs those (insert opposing political party or group here) crazy nuts messing up our search results?

While the more tech-savvy may be more careful about where they search, the average user just knows that the "search" and "google" box on the page finds stuff for them.

Private Control of Organic Search Listings

Let's say a visitor is on the website of a popular and trusted news organization belonging to a large media company. They read an article on how car insurance rates are going down. They think "hey, I should shop around for new car insurance", thinking that the "Google" box on the page will find them the best sites. But the news company has excluded many sites because they don't do business with them. Remember - this is a large and trusted news source... why should the visitor think for a second that the company has limited what they can see?

This situation becomes clearer if you consider that it would make good business sense for large networks of sites to create and share their own custom search engine. Think about the added value they can offer advertisers - while it is against Google terms of service to charge directly for inclusion, the whole point of the customized search is to include websites you "like".

Sites which have a reputation for quality information may end up providing "friendly sites" inclusion in results and also increased "search weight". How much is an extra point of search weight worth in the results of a leading industry portal?

Now, I'm not so naive as to think that the search results on Google are clear of human intervention and pure as the driven snow. However, I do expect to find results without someone else's opinion excluding what I'm looking for. Will we see an industry providing "CSE inclusion" and increased "search weight" on industry sites? Only time will tell.

Custom Search Engine Arbitrage

Arbitrage sites, for those of you who don't know, are sites that buy keywords at a low price, and try to get the visitor to then click on a higher priced ad. For the surfer and the 3rd party advertiser, these sites can be somewhat irritating.

It is not unusual to find an arbitrage site displaying search results (or something like them) that relate to the visitors keywords. Arbitrage sites may now attempt to include the search ads along with "controlled" organic listings. Will we see pages of semi-search paid links competing with only a limited number of organic results?



The funny thing is... Customized Search could be great news for adaptable Search Marketers. More complexity means more need for experts who understand those complexities.



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