So what’s the best way to deal with search engines that do not provide the information you need, even if you know how to perform advanced searches?

Right, you create your own. I’m not saying that I did program a new search engine though; It is merely a custom search engine based on Google that concentrates on the best tech sites in the world.

You can access and try the search here http://www.ghacks.net/search.htm and I’d love to hear your thoughts about it, especially:

• Are sites missing from search that you believe should be included?
• Are sites included that do not belong there?
• Would you like to see additional features?
• Would you like to see other design elements, more design elements?

Please note that the search engine is no replacement for Google Search, Bing Search or Yahoo, Ask and other search engines. Let me give you an example why:

If you search the custom search engine for eBay you won’t see eBay at the top. Why? Because it is not included in the list of sites. If you need a search engine to find eBay you should stick to the standard search engines.

A list of tech sites that are included in the search engine is available here as a Excel document: tech-sites

What you will get results for are related searches, best eBay sniper software, firefox 4 changes, ipad 2 reviews, windows 7 service pack 1 download, windows troubleshooting tips, computer repair and so on.

If you are looking for tips and tricks, best practices, gadget and software reviews, freeware and everything else that makes tech great, then this search engine is right for you. You won’t find low quality results in the mix, no scraper sites and no spam and ad infested sites.

I’m sure that the search engine needs refinement, new sites that I missed to add, more controls and the like. I did have to start somewhere and this is it. You can test if your favorite tech site is included with a site:domain name search, e.g. site:ghacks.net.

Oh, and don’t forget, let me know what you think. Here is the link again: Tech Search.

The beta service Rollyo provides guests and users with an opportunity to create their own custom search engine. Search results are based on Google, and Rollyo basically acts as a frontend for custom Google searches. Custom search engines are called Rolls at Rollyo. Visitors can create their own roll at this page. No technical knowledge is required to do that.

A new search engine is defined by a name and a list of websites that make up its index. Rollyo supports up to 25 different web addresses.

The newly created search engine becomes then available on Rollyo’s frontpage. The frontpage in addition lists several pre-selected custom search engines.

Registered users have several benefits including the ability to create search rolls from bookmarks, individual pages for custom search engines that are created and the ability to shares search rolls with the community. Registration does not take long and is completely free.

Rollyo is ideal for users who do not want to use Google’s own solution to create custom search engines. The creation itself is as easy as it can get, only the 25 website may limit the service in some situations.

GooFind is a custom search engine that uses Google’s vast database for file searching. It basically works just like Google Search, with the difference that the search engine limits the results to pages that link to files matching a user’s query.

The majority of results that are returned are unprotected user directories on servers. Think of it this way. If you are a user of a server you often get your own private space on the server that you can fill up with data. That’s usually not a problem if the server is protected so that search engines do not index the contents. But then, many directories are not protected and search engines find their contents eventually, so that they end up in the search engine’s index.

To find directories with files, simply enter a search term in the form and press the search button. Goofind displays all hits, ten per page with light advertisements on the side.

Goofind does not offer anything that you cannot do on your own, but it makes it way more comfortable. There is also a Chrome extension for those who want to search from their browser directly.

Update: The google chrome extension Goofind has been discontinued. The website with a web search is still available.

Google has added new custom search options yesterday which are now accessible in Google Search. The following four options have been added to Google Search:

• Past hour and Specific date range: With these tools you can choose to see only the most recent results in our index, or see results from a specific time period. This can be particularly helpful when you’re looking for the freshest information, or if you have some idea of when the information you’re looking for may have been published to the web.
• More shopping sites and Fewer shopping sites: Now you can choose “More shopping sites” to show additional commercial pages and display prices from those pages right in the search results. If you’re doing product research and are not quite ready to make a purchase, you can choose to see “Fewer shopping sites” to filter out many of the commercial sites.
• Visited pages and Not yet visited: Rediscover pages you’ve visited before by clicking “Visited pages,” or filter out the websites you’ve seen by clicking “Not yet visited.” This can be particularly helpful when you’re researching something you’ve already explored and you want to return right where you left off. To use this option you’ll need to be signed in to your Google Account and have Web History enabled.
• Books, Blogs and News: Click on these filters to see results only from these sources. Putting these filters together, along with videos, forums, and reviews, allows you to quickly switch between different source types right on the search results page.

The past hour and specific date range parameter was accessible through url parameters before only. The inclusion in the search options makes it easier to use this parameter. Search engine users can now increase or decrease the amount of shopping sites that are displayed in the Google search results which can be very handy depending on the type of search performed.

Visited pages and not yet visited is only available for users who are logged into their Google account and have web history enabled. This can be interesting to continue a search at a later time without having to revisit pages that have been visited before. Books, blogs and news finally allows to refine search to only see results from these sources. They are similar to the previous source filters which allowed search engine users to only display results from sources that were videos, forums or reviews.

It would be interesting if Google would reveal statistics about these custom search options to see how many search engine users make use of them. Which leads to this question: Have you used the custom search options?