Build your own Search Engine

http://www.buildasearch.com

by steff0219 • 18 years ago

3 5 18 years ago

buildasearch.com

rtw• 18 years ago

What is the value of this over Google CSE (Custom Search Engine)?

http://www.google.com/coop/cse/

gojomo2• 18 years ago

I tried to create one for news.ycombinator.com:

http://buildasearch.com/news_yc

The UI is very confusing; modal light boxes pop up often leaving it unclear if changes have been accepted. It didn't seem to accept 'http://news.ycombinator.com' as a single-site limit; but it did accept 'ycombinator.com' as one domain in the 'multiple site' option.

It appears to be backed by Yahoo's search. (A search for [desktoppy] found the exact same results as [desktoppy site:ycombinator.com] at Yahoo, while missing results found for the same query at Google.)

steff0219• 18 years ago

Gojomo...You didn't upload your logo or name of your search. Just click on each item (background, search bar, etc) and a color box will pop up.

gojomo2• 18 years ago

That mechanism was far from obvious. I did enter a name; apparently that text only appears in the URL, not the page.

I also changed the background color, and that was apparently lost when I went back to adjust from 'single site' (which was not confining searches to news.ycombinator.com) to 'multiple sites'.

I see what you're trying to do with the direct click-to-change customization, but the modality/light-boxes/workflow is very confusing and frustrating. I would suggest being unapologetically web-form-like: every change should require a 'submit' to take effect; result in a full-page-reload; the reload should show the change (no separate 'preview' mode).

ycombomeal• 18 years ago

BuildaSearch seemed to work fine with the 'http://news.ycombinator.com' url. I find that buildasearch offer tons more options over Google CSE. I read in some forum that buildasearch will be releasing the best build in January 2009. http://www.buildasearch.com/itsideways works great! BTW this site is not the most user friendly...

Build your own Search Engine

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