Google Cooking Up Customized Search In th' Labs

Google is offering a new feature in its labs:the "Site-Flavored Google Search Box." The direct link for it is http://www.google.com/services/siteflavored.html . You'll need to use Mozilla, IE, or Netscape for this -- Google doesn't seem to do much for Opera.

Here's how it works: you begin by specifying the "flavor" of your site, going through a group of categories and subcategories and checking the boxes that describe the content of your site. (Why is there no reference category?) When you've checked all the applicable boxes, click on the box saying, "Generate HTML." You'll get some code to paste into your site and a sample of the search box it'll generate.

The search box is live; if you enter a search in there you may get a search results page with customized results. If you do, you'll see that they're preceded by little Google-spheres. A switch under the query box lets you turn these customized results off. If you run a search that gets no customized results, you'll get the message "There are no customized results available for this query." under the query box.

Sharp-eyed readers will note this image source in the search box code: http://labs.google.com/images/gp/google_kaltix_site_flavored_searchbox.gif . Sharp-brained readers will remember Google's acquisition of Kaltix last September: http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/kaltix.html .

I really like this idea in theory. In practice it lets me down a bit. I appreciate the need to keep the number of categories and subcategories low as to not drive Webmasters nuts. But on the other hand I don't think there's enough specificity in what's being offered. At the least I'd like to see Webmasters offered a space where they could suggest their own subcategories.

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