Google Custom Search Engine

Google Custom Search Engine

Google, the most popular search engine in the world, enables us to build our own search tool. What does this mean for you, your class and your school? It means that you can build a search engine customized with content for your grade level, for a particular unit of study or with material for families in your school community.

What makes this tool even more powerful is that once you start building this search engine, you can invite collaborators from within your school or around the world to help your search engine grow. Now, you’re not building a tool that will just be used for a week or two and then forgotten. You’re building a tool that students can contribute to and learn from for the entire school year and beyond.

About Google Custom Search

Google Custom Search provides anyone with a Google account the opportunity to build a search engine targeting his or her own collection of sites. This search engine can then be shared through a link or by embedding into a blog or wiki. Once created, it can be used by you or your students—whether at school, at home or halfway around the world.

Let’s take a look at one user-created search engine. Visit http://tinyurl.com/2e25qz . This is a custom search engine was created for the sole purpose of helping to “...nurture girls' interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).” At the top of this page, you can see Google’s traditional search box. But look down the page, and you will see a section which says:

Searches sites including: www.binarygirl.com, www.computergirl.us, www2.lv.psu.edu/jkl1/sisters/,www.engineergirl.org, www.thefutureschannel.com

These sites, and some others, were chosen by the creator of this custom search engine and are the only sites searched when you enter a query.

Try it. Type chemistry into the search box. When you receive your results, the page you are viewing looks just like any other Google results page. The difference is that these results consist entirely of pages from the sites the creator chose.

Review this step by step tutorial on creating your own custom Google Search Engine or watch this video (only need to watch the first 5 minutes.)