On Tuesday, Google launched Google Site Search, a rebranded version of Google Custom Search Business Edition. Site Search makes it possible for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) to offer Google search capabilities on their Web sites.
“Search is never far from our minds — not just on Google, but also for the millions of Web sites that don’t yet have high-quality search,” wrote Nitin Mangtani, lead product manager for Google Enterprise Search, and Rajat Mukherjee, group product manager, Search, on the Google blog. “And since we’ve already built powerful search technologies into our computing infrastructure, site owners don’t have to build it themselves.”
Improved Business Search
Google has enhanced index coverage and added features to improve usability and customization, including synonyms, data biasing, and top-results biasing.
Google Site Search can serve all Web-site content — even deep pages or frequently updated material — as search results. The goal is to serve up relevant and comprehensive coverage of a Web site. Google accomplishes this by creating special indexes that supplement pages already searched by Google.com. For even greater coverage, Google said, site owners can upload site maps.
A feature called Synonyms lets users find documents with related terms without having to search multiple times. If the user types in “cd,” it will bring up results for both compact discs and certificates of deposit. Date Biasing and Top Results Biasing aim to fine-tune the relevance of search results by specifying a bias for newer documents or certain subsections of the Web site.
The new features will potentially lead to increased conversions and sales, Google said. EMC content manager Rudy Layla said EMC Insignia experienced an approximate 20 percent increase in e-commerce sales after implementing Google Site Search.
To sign up, businesses fill out a Web-based form with their site URL and a few customization specifications to get a…