Google just launched a customized search service called Google Co-op (screen shots below). Co-op allows a user to create and launch a search engine with just a few specific websites included. Searches will return results from only that website.
Users have a number of options to customize the search engine: choosing which pages they want to include in their index, how the content should be prioritized, whether others can contribute to the index, and what the search results page will look like.
This isn’t new – Rollyo, Eurekster and Yahoo already have similar products. But Google is also offering to bundle the service with Google Adsense ads and share revenue with websites that embed the custom search engine into their site. Only Eurekster currently shares revenue with users. Yahoo’s product, which got a lot of press at launch, has barely been mentioned in the nearly three months since then.
For bloggers, using Google Co-op may be a better choice than the built in search feature. Google search is generally better than search features included with blog software, and with the addition of Adsense this will generate a separate income stream as well.
From Techcrunch
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