• Takes seconds to create. We simplified the creation interface to get you going faster.
• One snippet for search box and results. Place it where you want your search box to appear.
• Powerful features now come by default: autocomplete, image thumbnails and results sorting.

• Uninterrupted browsing experience.
• Faster, more simple search means more chances for your users to discover great content from your site.

You may visit W3Schools to see the new layout in action or use the CSE below which searches our blog.

Try out the new layout by creating a new search engine. It takes less than a minute. Once you have your search engine snippet ready, simply paste it on your website.

Posted by Manolis Kounelakis and Neelesh Bodas, Custom Search team

• Search UI is rendered based on the settings stored on the Google CSE servers. This means that any configuration changes you make in the CSE control panel will automatically be reflected on your web pages the next time they reload. You no longer need to copy-and-paste new element code into your website when you modify your CSE using the control panel.


• All element code is loaded asynchronously for reduced page load times.


• Client-side customization allows you to overwrite global CSE settings on a per-page basis. For example, you can enable search history, disable auto search on page load, configure different Google Analytics parameters, and more. Customization is done through an easy-to-use HTML syntax which does not require any Javascript knowledge.

This look will be the new default for new custom search engines, and admins of existing custom search engines can also choose this new style by visiting the Look and feel page of their CSE’s control panel and selecting “Default” in the Choose or customize a style section. The old default remains an option, but has been renamed to “Classic”.

In addition to the new style for results, we’ve also updated the search box and made autocomplete more robust and consistent with the standard Google autocomplete. Note that this update affects all CSEs that use the Element so, in some rare cases, site owners who have made customizations to their CSE search box (or who have enabled autocomplete for their own search boxes) may need to make minor updates to accommodate the new search box’s slightly different look.

We hope you and your visitors enjoy these updates. Let us know what you think in our discussion forum.

Posted by: Dana Bright, UI Designer]]> https://googledata.org/google-custom-search/a-new-look-for-custom-search-results-plus-a-new-search-box/feed/ 0 https://googledata.org/google-custom-search/image-results-now-available-from-the-custom-search-api/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=image-results-now-available-from-the-custom-search-api https://googledata.org/google-custom-search/image-results-now-available-from-the-custom-search-api/#comments Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:58:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=6ce69a4837b21835c7336573a55fa895 Last year we added image results to Google Custom Search Engines to enable sites to offer image-only results that showcase photos and other digital images. For site owners who want more flexibility in presentation, they are also now available from the Custom Search API.

Read more about accessing Image Results from the Custom Search API or try it out in the Custom Search API Explorer. For billing purposes, image queries will be treated the same as web queries. Note that you need to enable image search in your custom search engine control panel for the custom image search to work. 

Let us know what you think in our discussion forum.

• Comprehensive JavaScript reference for the Custom Search Element. We’ve completely overhauled our Custom Search Element API documentation to provide a comprehensive overview of all the JavaScript methods available. We can’t wait to see what you build with it.


• More languages. The Help Center is now available in Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish.


• Easier navigation and cleaner design. We’ve reorganized the Help Center to make it easier to find the information you’re looking for. Navigation is simpler and more streamlined. Individual articles have been revised and updated, and designed to be more readable.

Promotions in Autocomplete:

Promotions are a great way to call special attention to a result by putting it at the top of search results and making it visually distinct. Now you can choose to display them in autocomplete too. To enable this feature, simply click Show promotions in autocomplete in the Promotions section of your CSE’s Control Panel. Note that promotions based on regular expressions or the $q variable will not appear in autocomplete.

If you’d like to have promotions that appear in autocomplete but not in search results, you can add them via the new Autocomplete Promotion tab of the Custom Autocompletions in the Autocompletion section of your CSE’s Control Panel.

Match mode give you options for how Google displays autocompletions. The following are now available in the Promotions section of your CSE’s Control Panel. Changes to match mode will require you to update the CSE code snippet on your site.

• Prefix (default) mode matches the opening words of the user’s query: “how to bake” will trigger “how to bake a pie”.
• Ordered mode doesn’t require the words to be in the opening, but their order must match the user’s query: “bake a pie” will trigger “how to bake a pie”.
• Any mode matches regardless of the order of the words in the user’s query. “pie bake” will trigger “how to bake a pie”.

We hope these new options make autocompletions even more useful for your site. Read more about Promotions in Autocomplete and Match mode. Let us know what you think in our discussion forum.

Posted by: Min Zeng, Software Engineer]]> https://googledata.org/google-custom-search/improvements-to-autocomplete/feed/ 0 https://googledata.org/google-custom-search/image-results-for-your-custom-search-engine/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=image-results-for-your-custom-search-engine https://googledata.org/google-custom-search/image-results-for-your-custom-search-engine/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:46:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=1c1cefca5ea4f996a1541a5c1474aac2 launch of Custom Search in 2006, CSE has powered searches on a broad range of sites on the web. Until now, those CSEs have only returned text-based results, but in some cases images can be a much faster, easier and more visually appealing way to search. For photos-focused sites, image results are a great way to showcase your beautiful photos and help visitors to your site quickly and easily find the photos they want. We also think sites focused on news, celebrities, art and digital production assets will similarly benefit.

Now you can add an image results tab to your CSE to offer your visitors image-only results in a variety of image-optimized presentation formats. Once you enable this feature, your CSE will have two tabs. The first has your current web search results and the second, Image tab, contains the image search results. Here’s an example from India-Forums.com:

Update: check out the New York Times Image Search app powered by Google Custom Search.

Posted by: Peng Zhao, Software Engineer

launch of Custom Search in 2006, CSE has powered searches on a broad range of sites on the web. Until now, those CSEs have only returned text-based results, but in some cases images can be a much faster, easier and more visually appealing way to search. For photos-focused sites, image results are a great way to showcase your beautiful photos and help visitors to your site quickly and easily find the photos they want. We also think sites focused on news, celebrities, art and digital production assets will similarly benefit.

Now you can add an image results tab to your CSE to offer your visitors image-only results in a variety of image-optimized presentation formats. Once you enable this feature, your CSE will have two tabs. The first has your current web search results and the second, Image tab, contains the image search results. Here’s an example from India-Forums.com:

Enabling image results is easy! Just visit the Basics page of your CSE’s Control Panel and check the Enable image search checkbox. You can change the layout of your image results on the Look and feel page.

Once enabled, you’ll also be able to get separate image search reports from your CSE’s Statistics page.

This new feature is available to all users of our Custom Search Element (you will need to Get Code and update your site). Since we are transitioning all iframe users to the Element, this should be most sites. Our Google Site Search users can also access Image Results via XML. To learn more about Image Search for Custom Search, please visit our help center. Let us know what you think in our discussion forum.

Update: check out the New York Times Image Search app powered by Google Custom Search.

Posted by: Peng Zhao, Software Engineer]]> https://googledata.org/google-custom-search/image-results-for-your-custom-search-engine/feed/ 0 https://googledata.org/google-custom-search/more-flexibility-for-promotions/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=more-flexibility-for-promotions https://googledata.org/google-custom-search/more-flexibility-for-promotions/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:38:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=1d6196e73bf239793812441437ad6d89 Custom Search promotions enable you to put relevant information at the top of your search results for specific queries.

Today, we’re announcing several new features to give you more flexibility on how and when to trigger them.

Regular expressions: Use regular expressions instead of verbatim query matches to make it easier to display your promotions for all relevant user queries.

Promotion URL and titles based on the user’s query: Instead of manually adding and maintaining a long list of similarly structured URLs and promotion titles, now you can use the $q variable in your promotion URL or title to replace it with the user’s query.

Enable/disable individual promotions: Manually enable or disable each promotion without affecting the others.

Promotions for Custom Search engines created in AdSense: Promotions now work for these CSEs (though they are still managed via the CSE’s control panel on the Google Custom Search site).

We hope these new features make it easier for you to use promotions on your site. For more details and instructions, please visit our help center. Let us know what you think in our discussion forum.

Posted by: Weiyu Zhu, Software Engineer]]> Custom Search promotions enable you to put relevant information at the top of your search results for specific queries.

Today, we’re announcing several new features to give you more flexibility on how and when to trigger them.

Regular expressions: Use regular expressions instead of verbatim query matches to make it easier to display your promotions for all relevant user queries.

Promotion URL and titles based on the user’s query: Instead of manually adding and maintaining a long list of similarly structured URLs and promotion titles, now you can use the $q variable in your promotion URL or title to replace it with the user’s query.

Enable/disable individual promotions: Manually enable or disable each promotion without affecting the others.

Promotions for Custom Search engines created in AdSense: Promotions now work for these CSEs (though they are still managed via the CSE’s control panel on the Google Custom Search site).

We hope these new features make it easier for you to use promotions on your site. For more details and instructions, please visit our help center. Let us know what you think in our discussion forum.

Posted by: Weiyu Zhu, Software Engineer]]> https://googledata.org/google-custom-search/more-flexibility-for-promotions/feed/ 0

• A new Site Search engine is created with the identical configuration as your current Site Search engine.
• The new Site Search engine is owned and can be administered by the new account owner.
• Any unused query quota is transferred to the new Site Search engine.
• The new Site Search engine will show the transfer history in the Business settings in the control panel
• You can still continue to use the old engine, but ads may be displayed alongside search results and XML access is disabled.

• Sort by Attribute: order search results based on values of specific attributes
• Restrict to Range: only return search results with attributes within a defined range

<PageMap>
<DataObject type="date">
<Attribute name="displaydate" value="Wednesday, August 25, 2010"/>
<Attribute name="sdate" value="20100825"/>
</DataObject>

<DataObject type="thumbnail">
<Attribute name="src" value="http://media.signonsandiego.com/img/photos/2010/08/25/635a63e9-f4a1-45aa-835a-ebee666b82e0news.ap.org_t100.jpg"/>
<Attribute name="width" value="100"/>
</DataObject>
</PageMap>

...
var options = {};
options[google.search.Search.RESTRICT_EXTENDED_ARGS] = {'sort': 'date-sdate:d:s'};
customSearchControl = new google.search.CustomSearchControl('000525776413497593842:aooj-2z_jjm', options);
...

• Sort by Attribute: order search results based on values of specific attributes
• Restrict to Range: only return search results with attributes within a defined range

<PageMap>
<DataObject type="date">
<Attribute name="displaydate" value="Wednesday, August 25, 2010"/>
<Attribute name="sdate" value="20100825"/>
</DataObject>

<DataObject type="thumbnail">
<Attribute name="src" value="http://media.signonsandiego.com/img/photos/2010/08/25/635a63e9-f4a1-45aa-835a-ebee666b82e0news.ap.org_t100.jpg"/>
<Attribute name="width" value="100"/>
</DataObject>
</PageMap>

...
var options = {};
options[google.search.Search.RESTRICT_EXTENDED_ARGS] = {'sort': 'date-sdate:d:s'};
customSearchControl = new google.search.CustomSearchControl('000525776413497593842:aooj-2z_jjm', options);
...

<LookAndFeel code="4"
         googlebranding="watermark"
         element_layout="1"
         theme="1"
         custom_theme="true"
         text_font="Arial, sans-serif">
 <Logo/>
 <Colors url="#008000"
         background="#FFFFFF"
         border="#FFFFFF"
         title="#0000CC"
         text="#000000"
         visited="#0000CC"
         title_hover="#0000CC"
         title_active="#0000CC" />
 <Promotions title_color="#0000CC"
         title_visited_color="#0000CC"
         url_color="#008000"
         background_color="#FFFFFF"
         border_color="#336699"
         snippet_color="#000000"
         title_hover_color="#0000CC"
         title_active_color="#0000CC" />
 <SearchControls input_border_color="#BCCDF0"
         button_border_color="#666666"
         button_background_color="#CECECE"
         tab_border_color="#E9E9E9"
         tab_background_color="#E9E9E9"
         tab_selected_border_color="#FF9900"
         tab_selected_background_color="#FFFFFF" />
 <Results border_color="#FFFFFF"
         border_hover_color="#FFFFFF"
         background_color="#FFFFFF"
         background_hover_color="#FFFFFF" />
</LookAndFeel>

• integration with several hosters to bring Custom Search to your doorstep
• enabled support for rich snippets, giving you more control over presentation of results
• it's now easier for you to promote specific content to the top of your search results
• we deployed contextual search within Blogger, Google Sites and Wikipedia
• automatic transliteration is now integrated into the search box
• improved results rendering flexibility with the Custom Search Element
• plug-n-play with themes for enhanced customizability of results look and feel
• added support for structured metadata and the ability to restrict results by specific attributes
• we got you ready for the growing population of users searching your websites with mobile devices, such as Android phones, iPhone, iPod Touch, Palm Pre, etc.