Google made no secret out of the fact that they worked on their own “custom” or “personalized” search engine. Lauren Baker over at Search Engine Journal was quick, because he made a post about it already a few hours ago.

Personalized Search Engine? What’s that? You might come across or already used the Services like Rollyo, Eurekster Swiki and Yahoo Search Builder. Those are “Custom” Search Engines. You can read Loren’s post to learn about how to use them to search your favorite Websites. I want to talk about the use of those custom search engines as cheap solution for an on site search on your Website.

I never tested Search Builder from Yahoo really. I created a “Search Engine” but never used it. I did however use Rollyo and Eurekster.

There are still some remains of the ladder on my site, but they are soon gone. Prior those new Web 2.0 gadgets did I use the Google Search Box with on Site search feature enabled and set to default.

It looked like crap in my opinion and was way to much plastered with Ads. There was not much room left for the actual On Site Search Results. I was ready to test those new toys for their practical use as alternative solution.

Rollyo did not last long on my site. It was not very practical as on site search solution you could not brand it at all and it shows so much other stuff that a user would never realize that he is searching my site and should ignore all the other stuff that is going on the screen. I changed it quickly and used it as intended, creating a few search engines for SQL Server and internet marketing related searches. I had the search box on my site as well as some kind of supplemental or complimentary search option (I should not use supplemental, because that word leaves a bad after taste in my mouth, thanks to Google).

Conclusion: Rollyo use for On Site Search – Impractical

Along came the Eurekster Swiki which looked cool on the surface. It was clearly designed to be used as On Site Search and Custom Search Engine to search your favorite news portals and Blogs. It allowed custom branding which was very far reaching and the initial results were also pretty good. The Keyword cloud was the best feature and the option to promote results and add pages that are relevant to a Keyword. Eurekster was horrible when it came to updates on my site. Even promoted pages were not indexed (I don’t want to say never, because I never waited long enough to find out. I was constantly teaching that dumb thing where pages are that match a keyword.

I got the feeling to work on a Del.icio.us clone for your Website and not a custom search engine. Or they took the word “search” to literally and thought, right search, nobody said something about finding stuff, didn’t they?

Conclusion: Cool Keyword Cloud feature, customization of layout possible, update of search index sucked. Not recommended unless you are a top 10 Del.icio.us tagger.

Yahoo Search Builder sorry, not tested.

Now the Google Custom Search Engine was launched as part of Google Co-Op and in less than 30 minutes (yeah, I like it fancy) did I replace the Eurekster Search Box with a Google Search Box.

What is cool is that Google results are returned on a page on my domain (optional). Eurekster did not provide that option.

Don’t see it as a bonus. All search result links from the customized page at the Eurekster domain to your site except from custom added style and navigation elements are tagged with “nofollow”)

The Google Custom Search is based on Google Co-Op. The Co-Op “Annotation” feature is used as “Advanced Option” for your Search Engine to load tagged URLs into your new Toy. I have not tried that one yet.

The option to get the result displayed on a specified page on my site was cool. The second page that is specified as results page simply has a second piece of code that must be added to the code of your site.

The Search results page always shows Google Ads. Yes, you can use your AdSense ID and get a piece of the pie. You have only a few choices where you can tell Google to show the Ads: Right, Top and Right, Top and Bottom, end of choices.

There is a checkbox to turn them off altogether that states:

“My search engine is for a 501(c)(3) non-profit, university, or government agency website, and I do not want advertising on the results pages.”

I guess I need to check the Terms again to find out how much I am obligated to have the Ads on.

You can specify some color options and you are ready to go.

Other features: Collaboration. Have either friends or everybody mess with your search engine. You can make it private and invite up to 100 people to mess with your toy. You can also accept volunteer requests (or decline them). Or you make it public property and start bedding on each others search engines to see how long it takes until your Custom Search Engine is nothing more than a Custom Spam Engine.

When it comes to look and feel then is Google as generous as always. A few color options and room for a custom logo which is too small to fit anything that you can call logo, including the Google one. I guess the design options come only in one shape and version, the one from AdSense.

Google does not like it if Webmasters take things into their own hands and decide what are pretty and what not. Thank you.

Another feature is the ability to use Google’s pretty new AJAX search APIs to display results. I have not played with that yet to tell you more about it at this point.

Let’s see how good Google Custom Search Engines for a Single Site are with updating themselves. So far so good … now I have to use it for a little while to provide some more info.
Conclusion: so far so good Google. Cool new Features, lets see how it works over time when used.

The Indian internet landscape is getting more competitive by the day. Not only is it widening in breath, it is also getting deeper. Search engines have traditionally been at the heart of how the internet works, and we now have multiple local search engines to choose from. The latest (and most promising) entrant to this field is Guruji, which launched last week.

Guruji is a crawler based local search engine that focuses on Indian content. It has been co-founded by these two ex-IIT Delhi guys who have a strong professional background. They have the backing of Sequoia Capital for venture funding and Suvir Sujan (who co-founded Bazzee) as an angel investor. It is not entirely insignificant to note that Sequoia was one of the earliest investors in Google.

Off course if its about search, comparisons to Google are inevitable. Google’s search algorithm is almost like an industry benchmark and other search engines are likely to be assessed in terms of how closely they can replicate what Google does. But if my understanding of Guruji is correct, it is trying to do what Google does best, but in a very different way. To understand this better, you first need to understand how Google works for Indian content. Let me explain-

Google/Yahoo crawl the entire web and then categorize the content as Indian or not. It still retains the non-Indian content in its database and that content is included in Indian search results but gets lower priority. What Guruji does is in sharp contrast to Google’s approach. It discovers the content while crawling, stores only the India related content and throws out the irrelevant (non-Indian) data. This technique allows Guruji to crawl more, go deeper and hence index more India related data.

To understand Guruji’s second differentiator, take a look at this FAQ from its website - “Guruji currently has the data for Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata……….free to submit any business listing you think is important and is missing“. When I first read this, it didn’t make any sense to me. How on earth is web indexing co-related to city specific data? I needed help from Guruji’s founder, Anurag Dod, who made me understand this better. Guruji calls this local (yellow pages) search. Using this section of their website (which seems to be an atomized listing of Indian websites), you can submit your establishment’s url for indexing. And when a query comes up, the user will get not only the web search results but also the business listing (almost like a yellow page listing). This feature is Guruji’s innovation and no other search engine does anything like this.

I think this local search is a very innovative feature. I also feel that this feature will almost work as a counter measure to Google’s very successful adwords program. Not convinced? Ok, let me explain how. I queried for “chinese food south delhi” on both Guruji and Google. The results are shown in the attached screenshots. On Google, you get a bunch of results and you also get a few featured adwords links on the right. On Guruji, the first difference is that the basic results seem more detailed and specific. Secondly, the local search (shown above the basic search results) lists two specific establishments, complete with their address/telephones. Now, isn’t that what the adwords program is supposed to do. This is my hypothesis. I tried to verify this, using other search queries as well but the results are not conclusive, probably because Guruji’s database is still very young and sparsely populated . Because of which, current comparisons of search queries on Google and Guruji would probably not be fair. We need to let Guruji gain traction before making judgments.

Anurag informed me that their future revenue model will be based on search engine ads (PPC) What I didn’t ask him was whether this is Google adwords or are they planning to have an advertising engine of their own as well?

I think Guruji is a very promising prospect. It has the right people backing it (i.e. founders, investors). And it is not trying to benchmark itself to what the Goliath in this field (Google) does. This is important, for one would need to think out of the box, in order to break Google’s stranglehold on Indian search.

While on local search, let me revisit two applications that I have reviewed in the past.

Onyomo- this is also a very promising local search engine, though its modus operandi is different from that of a classic search engine. For details, check out my earlier review. Its capabilities for local listing (or yellow pages search) overlaps with Guruji. It also has a very interesting mashup of city level maps with the search queries. Unfortunately it is available only in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai (future). In these cities, its search results are vastly superior to what Guruji gives at present (because of its modus operandi of adding content to its database).

MapmyIndia- this is the online mapping application that I reviewed a few weeks back and while it is not a search engine, it has a fairly potent local search section. You can search for services, facilities etc in the cities and they are marked out visually in the maps. It works fine, though the listings database needed to be better populated (when I reviewed it). And it has a pan-India coverage.

I am aware of another India focused search application that is currently under development (in the stealth mode). I have been shown a private demo but unfortunately, I can’t talk about it at this stage (I promised those guys). I think that’s very interesting as well.

Overall I feel that in about 6-12 months, these search applications are likely to become more mature. That’s when we shall really get to understand how capable they actually are. And its entirely possible that in the not too distant future, if you want to search local in India, you’d head to one of these, rather than Google. Webyantra says Amen with a capital A!

By Ran Aroussi

Do you have a blog you want to make some money from? How do you go about monetizing your blog? Blog monetizing is becoming increasingly popular using affiliate products.

One of the ways people are using for blog monetizing is Google AdSense which is a pay per click affiliate program. There are also a number of other pay per click affiliate programs which one could use to monetize your blog. Other AdSense type adverts that one could use for blog monetizing are SearchFeed, AdBrite, ClickSor, or Yahoo’s Publisher’s Network (YPN).

Though pay per click affiliate programs generally offer a low cost per click rate, another method you could use is cost per sale or cost per lead affiliate programs such as ClickBank products, PayDotCom, or Amazon products. An easy way to integrate ClickBank and PayDotCom products into your website is to create AdSense-style ads with the same look and feel but where you can earn more money on a per sale basis.

Another way to advertise affiliate products on your blog is to recommend them in your blog posts. Focusing on the subject of your blog, you could advertise different products related to it in each blog post. If you are careful to build up a relationship with the people who visit your blog, they’ll begin to trust you and as a result will be more likely to buy your affiliate products and create a blog monetizing focus for you.

Offering a paid newsletter is another way of blog monetizing. Start by offering a free newsletter and then have a way that people can upgrade to a paid newsletter or eZine. Your paid eZine for example could be in PDF format and look more like a magazine than your free newsletter which could be a simple email. You could also offer your affiliate products in your newsletter and eZine to earn extra money from it.

Another way of monetizing your blog is to sell advertising space on it. Many people are looking for places to advertise their website or blog and if you have a popular blog pulling in good page views then they will be prepared to pay you something to have their website advertised on your blog.

Although blog monetizing is normally done using affiliate programs you can also use other ideas such as having a paid newsletter or selling advertising space on your blog. You could advertise affiliate programs using AdSense style ads or by recommending affiliate products in your blog posts.

By Jag Senghera

Here are some ways you can get web traffic to your blog for free. Getting traffic to your blog is not easy. A new blog might get 10 - 20 vistor’s daily. If your blog is good and updated frequently it will give you up to 100 - 200 vistor’s daily. Some blogs like MrSikhNet will have up to 1000 vistors daily. For those who are using adsense to generate some income from your blog, then having 1000 vistors daily will help in the revenue thats generated. However if you just want your blog to be read by an international audience, then its essential you promote your blog. Below is 5 ways I find the most efficient in generating traffic to your site.

1. Tell your Family and Friends

Send an email out to all your friends and family members telling them about your new blog. Send an instant SMS or print the address of your blog on your business card and give it out to people. You could make a Car bumper Sticker with your blog address and Drive your car around town. Finally, add a Tell-a-friend script on your blog, this will enable vistors to invite their friends to check out your blog.

2. Submit to Blog and RSS directories

Whenever I start a new blog, the second thing I do after adding content is to list it on all the blog directories out there. Bloggers will read other people’s blogs and they find these blogs via blog directories. The more directories your site is listed the better. You can find a comprehensive list here .

3. Use Technorati.com

Technorati is the best for bloggers when it comes to getting traffic. Using technorati tags on your blog will make it easier to be found when searched. Technorati uses a blog ranking system too. Based on the number of links to your blog from various websites, your blog is given a rank. The higher your rank the easier your blog is to find when people search for things.

Go to www.technorati.com and register your blog with them. They will give you a code you need to add on your blog. Technorati is the authority on what’s going on in the world of weblogs. By adding your blog to technorati you will double your traffic.

4. Post comments on other people’s blog’s

When you add a comment to another person’s blog, you will be able to add your blog URL to that comment. Curious readers will surf to your blog from the comment you left. Posting comments will increase your link-popularity and hence increasing your standing in search engines. Commenting will build blogger communities and ensure a steady flow of traffic from the blog communities.

5. Participate in Forums.

Some forums will allow you to add your Blog URL on the signature. So when you reply a post or create a thread, what essentially you are doing is promoting your blog to the readers of that forum. Participating in forums will increase you link popularity as well, which means that your blog will be listed higher in search engines like google and MSN.

By Richard Pettinger

1. Include Short biography and photo. - People like to know who they are reading. It gives the blog a personal aspect. People are more likely to trust a real name and photo. It gives them something to relate. to. This is a nice feature of ezine articles - having a photo for every article.

2. Make it attractive and easy to read. Give people short pieces to read. If its a very long article you can link to the main text from your blog and just give a snippet. When you read a newspaper we usuall read headings and the opening paragraph, but how often do you read everything?

3. Try to stick to a regular publishing schedule. Little and often is better than all at once and then nothing for several months However don’t post for the sake of it. ( Not every one may share your enthusiasm for an in depth account of your recent visit to the local supermarket. ) - However it is surprising how many blogs go into this kind of detail

4. Good photos and an attractive design help. However don’t focus all your attention on the minute CSS details. The most important aspect of blogging is content

5. Use good Headings which are descriptive of content. This is good for search engines and also helps people to know what the blog entry is about.

6. Links should be descriptive of where they go. e.g How to write a good blog. This is much better than follow link here

7. Make your best postings easily accesible. Don’t let them get buried in archives. At the same time you will want to avoid cluttering up the navigation bar. Too many choices confuses readers.

8. Look for ways to promote your blog. Try to find people with similar interests. Use services like Ping o matic.

9. Try to offer something original. There are so many blogs that it is important to offer something different.

10. Avoid too much personal detail. It depends on your personality but a blog doesn’t mean you have to share all your inner thoughts often these are pretty embarrassing. Don’t forget what you share is available to everybody possibly for ever. Think twice before writing anything you may regret later. As an idea you could think would I be happy if my collegues at work read this.

In general you have to be interested and passionate in what you write this will show up to others.