Search:

Start Your Own Search Engine

Nobody can doubt the huge success of search businesses like Google and Yahoo, generating billions in revenues for their shareholders. However the sheer size of these search engines can sometimes lead to poorer quality results and a number of niche search engines have sprung up offering better searches for specific subjects, and making a tidy profit for their owners.

Up until now, most people have lacked either the technical expertise or the financial capability to create their own niche search engines and profit from this growth area. However Google have recently launched a new service that allows anyone with basic web design skills (i.e. cut and paste) to create a niche search engine based on Google technology and run it from their website.

How Does It Work?

The service is called Google Co-Op and once you have signed up you will have access to a control panel where you can begin building your search engine by adding the sites that you want listed in your results. You may choose to just add a handful of sites or you may end up adding a 1000 sites -- either way the results will be tailored very specifically to your niche and you can ensure that they will not contain the spam that the normal non-human edited results tend to.

It is also possible to tailor the look of the results, so that they match your website and best of all, you can earn money when people click on the sponsored adverts that are placed alongside the natural listings.

Finding A Niche

To make your search engine successful, avoid using the default Google results. People can just go to the main Google homepage and there will be little point in using your site. Instead you need to be able to provide added value and that means putting in the time to build up your own index of websites from which your search engine's results will be derived. This is really easy and Google provides a tool that simply allows you to bookmark sites for inclusion, whilst you are browsing.

The list of possible niches is endless and includes travel, business, health, internet, property, science, etc. I have recently set up a search engine focused on financial advice for beginners - www.finance4beginners.co.uk. In addition to this Google does not limit the number of search engines that you can own, so you could set up a range of highly focused search engine businesses.

A Good Online Business?

So can you use this technology to build up a viable business? On the plus side, the Google Co-Op service is free to use, you do not need to worry about writing content, a system for generating revenue is provided and the technology is proven and reliable.

However, low barriers to entry could potentially mean lots of competition and to be a successful niche search engine you need to dominate your area, ensuring you list the best websites and have a good, well-known brand. You may want to find other ways of differentiating your search engine, by offering your own pages of content, a directory or useful tools.