Here were my requirements going into this:

1. Limit the search to the sites I want. I give them a list and it only searches those sites. The list would need to be updated dynamically or via an API.
2. Allows me to modify the search results in any order I want or mixing it with other data.
3. Allows me to format the search results how I please.
4. I want the results in a multiple formats to allow for flexibility when and where the results are displayed.
5. I would love to try to monetize the search engine however I want.

Searching for what I needed led me to discover many cool technologies.

I first looked at possibly the most obvious: Google Custom Search Engine. Google CSE is a cool product but it didn’t suit my needs at all. The terms of service don’t allow you to modify the results. I also looked at Google AJAX Search API. Again, doesn’t fit the requirements. I may find a need for the AJAX Search API in the near future though.

Other technologies deserved some attention as well. Products such as CouchDB and Lucene required too much so I didn’t spend much time looking into these.

I had looked at Yahoo BOSS (build your own search service). Initially, it didn’t look like it would suit my needs. After revisiting BOSS, looking at code samples and the API, it was exactly what I was looking for. Easy, fast, reliable. Fits exactly my requirements. Awesome.

Since the site I am building was based on WordPress (like all my sites), I decided to put my work it into a WordPress plugin to allow a WordPress site to easily add a real search engine to the site just by defining some simple options. The first version will be very limited in what can be done but I have a lot of features that I will be adding to it very soon.

I just need to get it ready to release. Soon I hope.

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

I created a few alerts to monitor a few things that I am keeping my on. While I was at it, I created a few alerts to monitor if anybody ever says anything about me. Funny thing is, I’m not the only Josh Harrison in the world as Google sees it. Apparently, on works (or worked) at Microsoft, there is a football player somewhere, and some random guy. That is probably what the others say about me. I also created one to monitor picklewagon.

This is a pretty cool service. Everybody should set one up that wants to keep up with what others are saying about a particular topic. It’s missing one feature that I am interested in. I want the option to subscribe any of the alerts via RSS instead of email. You can subscribe to a search on Google’s Blog Search. Why isn’t the same option available with their alerts service? One of those Googlers should add the feature with their 20% time they have to work on pet projects. Google should just hire me so I can do it. What do you think, Google?

I didn’t think much of this when I first read about it. But then I started to think of the possibilities. This allows you to create an awesome search engine that will only produce results relevant to the topic you have chosen. You and google then share the ad revenue generated from the traffic.

It’s easy to do it too. I am working on creating one centered around trading cards. I haven’t yet added a lot of sites to it. Google lets you customize it quite a bit. I have lots of ideas for Trading Card Search. I need a web site for it. If anybody has any ideas, let me know. All the domain names I thought of are taken on the Internet with irrelevant content. I also need a logo.

Since google has made it easy for everybody to create a search engine, what are you going to do about it. Think about it, if you do real estate, create a search engine for it. Think of the possibilities, real estate, teaching references, scrapbooking, politics. There are some great search engines being created.