Google Co-op Beta!!

[Heretic]

Here is the link: http://www.google.com/coop/
Article: http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/23/google-custom-search-tomorrow/
My test search engine: http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014993098406864043030%3Azyejoc4xdte

This product rocks
Has some very nifty features not available in Yahoo Search Builder and Live Macros

With Co-op one can:
- Make money (get a share off the ad clicks)
- Multi-label sites
- Have up to 5000 annotations per search engine
- Can collaborate with friends to tag sites (just send an invite)
- Can associate weights to results and have control over the rankings (in the XML config)
- Completely brand the engine and customize the look and feel
Ex. http://vik.singh.googlepages.com/techstuff
- Can display refinements on the search results page
Ex. http://vik.singh.googlepages.com/machinelearningsearch2
- Can upload xml/opml files filled with links
- Can upload xml to configure the search engine labels/contexts
- Can even nest label hierarchies on the refinements onebox
Ex. http://vik.singh.googlepages.com/machinelearningsearch2 .. click on Sources
- Can make the search ajax'y
Ex. http://www.google.com/uds/samples/cse/index.html
- Can combine results with another person's search results
(by intersecting the background labels in the XML advanced configuration file)

and much much more (especially for powered users)

If you need a search engine for your site, and your content has been indexed by Google, then seriously consider using this rather buliding your own index or worse using the crappy full-text functions available in relational databases

[2003m2003]

Thanks, Google come with something new everyday.

[rustybrick]

Google Coop is old.

Google Custom Search Engine is a brand new piece of the Google Coop.

[RatDog]

Thanks, Heretic. The Custom Search Engine looks quite interesting. I've printed out the TOS and will read it over later today.

[Heretic]

Google Coop is old.

Google Custom Search Engine is a brand new piece of the Google Coop.

sorry about that I should have been more clear. But yea thats what I meant to say.:D

[JeremyL]

There are going to be so many ways this thing will be used very soon. Stuff no one has even thought of yet. I can't wait :D

[acclaim]

Thanks for the info. Wonderful product with a high potential.

[horvath]

is there a way you can change the url or get visitors to the site?
i made one here but i dunno if people can find it.
http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=015390553298372127550%3Alygnwkrkzzy

[career_info_fun]

thanks a lot it is very useful and another good service by google.. better than swicki i think

[JeremyL]

is there a way you can change the url or get visitors to the site?
i made one here but i dunno if people can find it.
http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=015390553298372127550%3Alygnwkrkzzy

You can use your own domain / subdomain. Look in the settings. I am not sure if there is a way to make the urls look nicer though.

[Ganceann]

After reading this I setup my own as well.

It is something I had been wanting to do since forever - but couldn't afford to build my own search engine (not got the knowledge or experience :P), also every other option I had looked at there were too many drawbacks or lack of control.

The Co-Op option is ideal in the sense pruning and refinement by the community can reap better results for all the community users - and exclude all the junk and spam that is normally returned.

Adding adsense was also straightforward - but it would be nice to be able to choose from the 3 options for experimentation rather than being assigned the default top and bottom display when choosing just the search box.

[JeremyL]

There seems to be a way with AJAX and the API to mold it however you want. See this

http://www.google.com/uds/samples/cse/index.html

I can't seem to find the docs that explain how the CSE was tapped into though. Maybe I'm just blind.

[Shadow]

There seems to be a way with AJAX and the API to mold it however you want. See this

http://www.google.com/uds/samples/cse/index.html

I can't seem to find the docs that explain how the CSE was tapped into though. Maybe I'm just blind.

Yea, I'm fighting with that one for over an hour now :confused:

EDIT

Ok, I figured it out:

(...)
<link href="http://www.google.com/uds/css/gsearch.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet"/>

<script src="http://www.google.com/uds/api?file=uds.js&amp;v=1.0&key=YOUR_GOOGLE_SEARCH_API" type="text/javascript"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[

function OnLoad() {
// Create a search control
var searchControl = new GSearchControl();

// site restricted web search using a custom search engine
siteSearch = new GwebSearch();
siteSearch.setUserDefinedLabel("Custom Label");

// Your CSE API is at the bottom of the page with your CSE code
siteSearch.setSiteRestriction("YOUR_CUSTOM_SEARCH_ENGINE_API");
searchControl.addSearcher(siteSearch);

// Establish a keep callback
searchControl.setOnKeepCallback(null, DummyClipSearchResult);

// tell the searcher to draw itself and tell it where to attach
searchControl.draw(document.getElementById("searchcontrol"));

// execute an inital search
searchControl.execute("Google");
}

function DummyClipSearchResult(result) {}

//]]>
</script> </head>
<body onload="OnLoad()">
<div id="searchcontrol"/>
</body>
</html>


Hope this helps someone :)

[JeremyL]

Wow good deal. All those notes where not there the first time I looked. I posted something to Cutt's blog about needing docs. Maybe they saw and added the notes to the code.

<script type="text/javascript">

// the cse class encapsulates a left and right search control
// both controls are driven by a shared search form
function cse() {
var sFormDiv = document.getElementById("searchForm");
var leftScDiv = document.getElementById("leftSearchControl");
var rightScDiv = document.getElementById("rightSearchControl");

// create a left, right search control
// create a custom search form
this.leftControl = new GSearchControl();
this.rightControl = new GSearchControl();
this.searchForm = new GSearchForm(true, sFormDiv);

// bind clear and submit functions
this.searchForm.setOnSubmitCallback(this, cse.prototype.onSubmit);
this.searchForm.setOnClearCallback(this, cse.prototype.onClear);

// set up for small result sets
this.leftControl.setResultSetSize(GSearch.SMALL_RESULTSET);
this.rightControl.setResultSetSize(GSearch.SMALL_RESULTSET);

var searcher;
var options;

// configure left control
// Site Restrict to CSE ID for reviews
searcher = new GwebSearch();
options = new GsearcherOptions();
searcher.setSiteRestriction("000455696194071821846:reviews");
searcher.setUserDefinedLabel("Product Reviews");
options.setExpandMode(GSearchControl.EXPAND_MODE_OPEN);
this.leftControl.addSearcher(searcher, options);

// configure right control for
// -- cse for comparisons
// -- cse for community
// -- cse for shopping
// -- blog search
// -- video search
searcher = new GwebSearch();
options = new GsearcherOptions();
searcher.setSiteRestriction("000455696194071821846:comparisons");
searcher.setUserDefinedLabel("Prices");
this.rightControl.addSearcher(searcher, options);

searcher = new GwebSearch();
options = new GsearcherOptions();
searcher.setSiteRestriction("000455696194071821846:community");
searcher.setUserDefinedLabel("Forums");
this.rightControl.addSearcher(searcher, options);

searcher = new GwebSearch();
options = new GsearcherOptions();
searcher.setSiteRestriction("000455696194071821846:shopping");
searcher.setUserDefinedLabel("Shopping");
this.rightControl.addSearcher(searcher, options);

searcher = new GblogSearch();
this.rightControl.addSearcher(searcher);

searcher = new GwebSearch();
this.rightControl.addSearcher(searcher);

searcher = new GnewsSearch();
this.rightControl.addSearcher(searcher);

// draw the left and right controls
// the right control is drawn in tabbed mode
var drawOptions = new GdrawOptions();
drawOptions.setDrawMode(GSearchControl.DRAW_MODE_TABBED);

this.leftControl.draw(leftScDiv);
this.rightControl.draw(rightScDiv, drawOptions);

// bind in a videobar
var videoBarDiv = document.getElementById("videoBar");
var videoPlayerDiv = document.getElementById("videoPlayer")
var vboptions = {
largeResultSet : false,
horizontal : true
}

this.videoBar = new GSvideoBar(videoBarDiv, videoPlayerDiv, vboptions);

// execute a starter search
this.searchForm.execute("Apple iPod");

}

// when the form fires a submit, grab its
// value and call the left and right control
cse.prototype.onSubmit = function(form) {
var q = form.input.value;
if (q && q!= "") {
this.leftControl.execute(q);
this.rightControl.execute(q);
this.videoBar.execute(q);
}
return false;
}

// when the form fires a clear, call the left and right control
cse.prototype.onClear = function(form) {
this.leftControl.clearAllResults();
this.rightControl.clearAllResults();
this.videoBar.clearAllResults();
form.input.value = "";
return false;
}

function OnLoad() {
new cse();
}
</script>

[JeremyL]

Haha I was just looking at their code, wondering about the way they had the adsense ads displayed and I see this

/* for demonstration purposes ONLY. This is not ok by the terms */
#rightSearchControl .gsc-ad-box {
display : none;
}

They really should put up examples of stuff that's legal by their terms.