Create Your Own Search Engine with Yahoo! Search Builder

"Voila! Instant search engine."

JavaScriptSearch
Tuesday, August 8, 2006; 05:12 AM

Yahoo launched a new tool for developers and webmasters: the Yahoo! Search Builder allows anyone to create a customized search engine with little effort.  The new web-based service can create a search box that searches the web, a specific site, or a selection of sources.

From the announcement on an official Yahoo! blog: "With Yahoo! Search Builder you can create a custom Web search engine by selecting a set of trusted sites to search across or you can tune the search algorithm to the topic of your choice. Beyond Web search, Search Builder includes Site search and News search."

Users can opt for either creating a simple search box, or going through a four-step process that produces a custom search.  In either case, the automated AJAX service generates the code that you’ll need to add your search engine to your site. Colors and size can are easily modified via a simple graphical user interface. 

This is the latest tool Yahoo! offers to web developers.  Previously it has released a number of free tools, including the Yahoo! User Interface JavaScript library, and the Yahoo! Search Application Programming Interface. 

The Yahoo! Search Build blog provides links to two custom search engines, created with the new service. The links are at ysearchblog.com/archives/000339.html .

 The Yahoo! Search Builder.