Create a Custom Google Search Engine

This is an example of how insomnia can be your friend.  While I was blog hopping, I stumbled upon one with a customized Search Engine for finding resources related to a specific topic. I can’t tell you how many times I have gone from one website to another searching for that perfect SMART Notebook lesson. By typing in a specific curriculum topic (for example, water cycle) I can now search all my favorite SMART websites at once. Oh, the extra time I shall now have on my hands…



To create your own search engine:

  1. On the Google Custom Search home page, click New search engine. In the Sites to search section, add the pages you want to include in your search engine. You can include any sites you want, not just sites you own. You can include site URLs or page URLs, and you can also get fancy and use URL patterns. The name of your search engine will be automatically generated based on the URLs you select. You can change this name at any time.
  2. Select the language of your search engine. This defines the language of the buttons and other design elements of your search engine, but doesn’t affect the actual search results.
  3. Click Create.
  4. To add your search engine to your site, click Get Code on the next page. Copy the code and paste it into your site wherever you want your Custom Search Engine to appear.