Google has announced a beefed-up version of Google Custom Search, a site search product aimed at small and medium sized businesses. The new service is hosted by Google and offers all of the same functionality of the free Google Custom Search product, with a few key differences:

Customized search results. You can change the look and feel of search results to match the underlying design of a website, using a relatively straightforward XML API provided by Google.

Optional ads. With the free version of Google Custom Search, Google displays ads alongside search results. With the Business Edition, ads in search results are optional.

Dedicated enterprise support. The new service offers both email & phone support,

Optional Google branding. Don’t want the Google logo on your search results? You can easily turn it off.

Custom Search Business Edition starts at $100 a year for searching up to 5,000 pages and extends to $500 for 50,000 pages. Larger volumes of pages are supported through Google’s enterprise sales group. For smaller sites, businesses can sign up using a credit card for payment, and get a site search up and running quickly using a simple online interface.

To see an example of Google Custom Search Business Edition in action, see Holiday Home Rental, an online directory of 25,000 holiday rental homes with more than 150,000 pages of content. More information about the new service at the Google Custom Search Engine page.

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Google: Custom Search Engine | Google: Enterprise Search | Site & Enterprise Search

About The Author: Chris Sherman (@CJSherman) is a Founding Editor of SearchEngineLand.com and President of Searchwise LLC, a Boulder Colorado based Web consulting firm. He also programs and co-chairs the Search Marketing Expo - SMX conference series. See more articles by Chris Sherman

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