17 July 2007

Google launches new Custom Search for small businesses

Google has announced the launch of a new business edition of their Custom Search program. This new edition has been specifically designed to target small businesses, allowing websites to provide a custom service without the hassle of maintenance or adverts by other companies on the search results. The custom search engine can be quickly installed, boasting a ten minute set up process.

The Custom Search engine can be customized by including the company logo, changing the background and font colours and specifying the website or websites from which you want Google to conduct the search. Keywords or key phrases can also be suggested in order to make it easier for the user to quickly access specific parts of your site.

The results are delivered on an XML API with no sponsored links, and the presence of XML implies full customization of the user interface. It is ideal for small businesses since there is an upper limit of 5,000 web pages.

This service comes with a price tag of $100 per year, although is still more affordable than previous search applications from Google, which can cost $1,995 for up to 50,000 web pages. Since this service is hosted on Google's computers, it does not require any specific technology from the business server - unlike other free custom search solutions, such as IBM Yahoo! OmniFind Enterprise Edition. IBM Yahoo! OmniFind Enterprise Edition is an excellent piece of search technology but it requires PHP 5 to run on the business server; this seriously complicates the set up process and, in some instances, leaves websites unable to install the OmniFind solution.

Google seems to have realised that many businesses were reluctant to take up the previous free service because of the ad presence, which could lead potential customers to competitors signed up to AdWords. The new solution will be warmly embraced by many small enterprises, but the $100 a year price tag could also make companies with low budgets think twice before jumping to Google's newest custom search service.

However, there is another issue with the Custom Search program that may prove a barrier for some businesses. The application pulls data from web pages already crawled by Google and present in its index. If your website is undergoing technical issues or uses technology that stops spiders from crawling all the pages, each page which is not already in the Google index will not be made available on the custom search results pages either.

But any system that enables users to find their way through hundreds of web pages is a major improvement, and Google has come to the rescue for those businesses who don't want the hassle of maintenance or search hosted on their servers.

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