Putting Google Search on Your Site

1. ONLINE- MARKETING CHAPTER-5 Putting Google Search on Your Site PRESENTATION -5

2. Giving your users options to search the Web or your site (or other specific sites) is fairly easy Google offers four free search services and three paid services: Google on your site Google Free. A Google-branded search box that delivers Web results. Google Free Safe Search. Same as Google Free, but delivers edited search results free of adult content Google Free Web and Site Search. An enhanced version of Google Free with an added option to search only your site or only another site selected by you. Customized Free Web (and Site) Search. With or without the Site Search option, free customization is available to registered users, enabling them to display search results under their site’s logo and with their site’s colors. Silver and Gold Search. Two paid search service plans for sites conducting millions of searches per year Custom Web Search. The highest level of paid search, for extremely high traffic sites. ISPs and publishers such as EarthLink and the Washington Post are two clients of Custom Web Search.

3. Terms and Restrictions No frames, mirrors, or cache. Google doesn’t want you appropriating the search process technically or prohibiting the results from being displayed on a Google-served page. Monogamy, please. Google is a demanding partner. You may not place another company’s search box on the same page with Google’s. This requirement is widely ignored. Accept Google, accept its ads. Google displays advertisements on nearly ever search results page, including the ones appearing on your site. Keep it clean. Google doesn’t want to be associated with illegal sites, domains that propagate copyright infringement, adult sites, or sites that sell alcohol or tobacco to minors. Be nice to Google. Don’t say mean things about the company that’s providing free use of its logo and search engine. Google doesn’t know you. Don’t pretend that Google is affiliated with or endorses your site’s content Obey logo laws. Several bylaws apply to the Google logo. Don’t draw on it, even though Google does.

4. Google can cut you off. As with all TOS agreements, the provider (Google in this case) can end this collaboration at any time. Adding Google Free to your site, you go the whole route with Web and Site Search, fully customized for your site. The ability to search your own domain and present search results in the color scheme of your site (complete with logo) distinguishes Google free. Getting Your Code 1. Go to the search code page here: www.google.com/searchcode.html 2. Scroll down the page to the first code sample, and copy the entire sample to the Clipboard. 3. Paste the code into the HTML document representing your Web page

5. 4. Upload the new HTML document for your page to its place on your site server. 5. Visit your page to see the results. Depending on your software, you might be able to view the result before uploading and make adjustments. Registration is not required for basic Google Free, but if you want to customize the search results, Google needs to know who you are and where your domain is. Highlight, copy, and paste Google’s free HTML code to Install Google Free search

6. A Google SafeSearch form. SafeSearch is a Google searching option that blocks Web pages containing explicit sexual content from appearing in search results. To install a SafeSearch box, follow the same steps but in Step 2 scroll further down the code page to the SafeSearch HTML. Free Web and Site Search If you choose Web and Site Search, you need to alter the preset HTML code The basic appearance doesn’t change much, but you need to plug in your site’s domain information. Otherwise, Google won’t know how to offer visitors the option of limiting a search to your site. Follow these steps: 1. Go to the search code page: www.google.com/searchcode.html 2. Scroll down the page to the last code sample, and copy the entire sample to the Clipboard.

7. 3. Paste the code into the HTML document representing your Web page. You may paste it anywhere in your HTML document. Google allows the search box to appear anywhere on the page. 4. Change the first two instances of YOUR DOMAIN NAME to your actual domain address, including the http:// prefix. 5. Change the third instance of YOUR DOMAIN NAME, to the name you want to appear on your page. Type whatever you want your visitors to see. 6. Upload the new HTML document for your page to its place on your site server Stretching and shrinking the search box You can maintain the horizontal layout in a narrower space by shrinking the search box. In the HTML code, . <INPUT TYPE=text name=q size=25 maxlength=255 value=””> The size variable determines the horizontal size of the keyword box; a smaller number narrows the entry box.

8. This Webmaster shrank the keyword box and also stacked the elements . The first line represents the keyword box. The second line is the Search button (the text of which the Webmaster easily changed from Google Search to Search, thereby shrinking the button to a narrower fit). The last three lines refer to the Google logo.

9. Changing typeface and font size <INPUT type=submit name=btnG VALUE=”Google Search”> <font size=-1> The first line refers to the Google Search button, which is the one that counts. To make a larger font, change the default setting (-1) to 0 or a positive number, using a plus sign before the positive number. To change typeface from the default (which, on the host page, was Times Roman) to Arial. <font size=-1 face=”arial”> Don’t forget to put quotation marks around the typeface Forcing results to a new browser window When visitors use your free Google search, they click right out of your site. Providing a convenience shouldn’t necessarily mean that you lose your visitors. Forcing the search results to display in a new browser window keeps your site alive in the old browser window. Google encourages this code tweak

10. <form method=GET action=”http://www.google.com/search”> The blank-page variable is written like this: _blank. Yes, that’s a single underline followed by the word blank . Precede this with the target command. The whole thing looks like this: <form method=GET action=”http://www.google.com/search” target=_blank> Now when your visitors launch a search, the results pop open in a new window Using a different logo Google offers several stickers from which to choose an official logo. You can see the selection here: http://www.google.com/stickers.html The result is shown on the next page.

12. To switch logos, follow these steps: 1. Right-click any logo and choose Copy Image Location. 2. In the code sample, find this line: <IMG SRC=”http://www.google.com/logos/Logo_40wht.gif” border=”0” ALT=”Google”> 3. Highlight the location of the image, which is the following part: http://www.google.com/logos/Logo_40wht.gif 4. Paste the copied image location in place of the original. 5. Paste the altered code into your Web page. Your server now pulls the correct logo from Google’s server 6. Upload the new HTML document for your page to its place on your site server

13. Customizing Search Results To customize, you must register as a Google Free user. Google gets you customizing first, and then collects your basic information. Registration is free 1. Go to the start page: services.google.com/cobrand/free_select 2. Choose the Free WebSearch plus SiteSearch option or the Free WebSearch option. 3. Enter the domain address or addresses that you want as search options. You are free to offer your visitors searches constrained to any public domain. Think about which site searches might benefit your visitors. 4. Click the Continue button. Google tells you how many pages of your selected domains currently reside in Google’s Web index. (See Figure 5-7.) These statistics give you some idea of the depth of the search you’re making available to your visitors.

14. Google reports how many pages of your selected domains reside in the Web index. 5. On the Step 2 of 4 page, scroll down to fill in the customization fields 6. Click the Continue button.

15. 7. On the Step 3 of 4 page, fill in your name, e-mail address, and a password. Click the Continue button. 8. On the Step 4 of 4 page, copy the entire HTML code sample and paste it into your Web page. Fill in the customization fields to create a distinctive search results page.

16. Building Your Own Google Site The ultimate extension of Google Free is the construction of an entire site dedicated to Google search. This ambitious task is best accomplished as a third-party Google interface developer, an avocation Google encourages. Google offers software developers a free license to access the Google Web index. This license enables alternate Google sites to deliver Google search results through new interfaces. Developers download a software kit that includes the Google Web API (Application Programming Interface). For more information, go here http://www.google.com/apis/index.html On that page, you can download a developer’s kit and Google license key.

17. Each license key allows you 1000 searches per day. Many alternate Google sites invite users to plug in their license keys instead of relying on the site’s key. Doing so shares the load and makes it less likely that the site will freeze because it has used up its allowed number of searches. An example of an effective alternate Google is the Google Ultimate Interface, www.faganfinder.com/google.html