Google recently announced their coop program. Coop lets you create your own vertical search engine and monetize the search through adsense ads on the result pages.

Your search engine can be customized in a number of ways. When you set up your search engine, you can determine if you want the engine to show results from just sites that you select or the entire google databse. Similar to adsense, you can customize the link and text colors for your search results page. You can also choose to have the search results shown on Google’s site or on your site via javascript or an ajax api. The set up script allows you if you want to show ads on the top, bottom, or side of the page.
Setting up your search engine is quick and easy. It took me about 15 minutes to set up my Example Term Paper search engine. Linking up my adsense account required entering the email address, zip code, and last 5 digits of the phone number linked to my adsense account. After some configuration, the search engine works like a charm and is faster than I anticipated.

So far, I have noticed a few opportunities to improve the service. The search box has a background watermark which reads “Google Custom Search.” The watermark disappears when a user clicks in the search box to enter text. I understand Google’s desire to brand the search box, but the watermark might be confusing for some users. It would also be valuable to see data on what users are searching for in the coop control panel interface. This would help search engine owners to understand their audience better and customize the search engine accordingly.

Overall, it is an interesting experiment, and at least worth testing. After I have some usage data on my search engine, I will report back on my satisfaction with the service.