06/06/2008

Google announced the Site Search service, which allows site owners to implement search functionality via cloud computing. Site owners can customize Google Site Search depending on the nature of their site and their content.

ebizQ received the following:

Google Site Search now offers:

• Enhanced index coverage: comprehensive search results on any website by crawling and indexing more content, even pages deep within a site;
  * Synonyms: website owners can add their own custom synonym dictionary (a search for [cd] would include [certificate of deposit] in search results);
  * Date biasing: site owners can influence search results based on the age of documents (e.g., a recent product datasheet is weighted more heavily than older product documents);
  * Top results biasing: specific sections of the site (such as the product catalog) appear at the top of search results
  * Full customization of the look & feel: site owners can fully customize the search results interface to integrate with the unique look and feel of their sites.

"Cloud computing makes powerful search readily accessible to any business on the web" said Dave Girouard, president of Enterprise, Google. "Website owners typically invest in good content, search optimization and advertising to attract customers -- but often lack a quality search experience once customers arrive. With Google Site Search, websites can immediately increase customer satisfaction as they are improving their business results"

Google Site Search is hosted by Google, and takes advantage of the power of Google infrastructure and flexibility of cloud computing to give any website the same relevance, ease of use and familiar Google.com search experience in addition to more granular control.

Research indicates that customers increasingly rely on search to find information on individual websites:

• 90 percent of consumers who have made an online purchase said they used site search to access self-service content (Harris Interactive)
  * When navigation attempts fail, 50 percent of users will turn to search (Jupiter Media Matrix)
  * In a study of 2,000 shoppers, 71 percent used keyword searches to find their products (eTailing Group)

"Adding Google Site Search to our website not only helps customers, it also helps our support staff and our business" said Layla Rudy, website content manager for EMC Insignia. "Since customers are able to find product information much more easily on EMCInsignia.com, we have seen an 85 percent decrease in customer-requested refunds along with an approximate 20 percent increase in e-commerce sales"

Any business can sign up online, and in less than 10 minutes offer Google Site Search to visitors. In addition to enhanced index coverage, Google Site Search includes all of the benefits site search users have come to rely on:

• Site search hosted by Google, eliminating the need to install and maintain additional technology
  * Power and reliability of Google’s infrastructure
  * Relevant results and sub-second query response times characteristic of Google.com
  * Ability to easily set up, purchase, and manage results online
  * Full customization of search results available through an XML API * Reporting features that give insight into visitor behaviors
  * Integration with Google Analytics for in-depth reporting
  * Options for email and phone support
  * Opt-in capability to include ads (available through AdSense for search)

"Google Site Search has not only helped our customers find and purchase products online more successfully, it has also helped us continually improve our website" said Kay Pham, senior product manager for eHealth Insurance. "By showing us what people are searching for, we can identify upcoming trends and incorporate them into our product development cycle. It’s like an automatic focus group"