Google is ready to let Web publishers and bloggers create custom searches on their sites, in a move that could make searches more relevant to consumers and allow the company to charge more for advertising, a Reuters report said.
The Internet search leader said the new Google Custom Search Engine relied on the same underlying database of Web sites to allow companies or individual users to set up personalized online searches, on topics ranging from global climate change to gossip on pop stars.
'This is really a way to make your own version of Google search,' Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president in charge of search, said.
The announcement, which executives said was one of the biggest it would make this quarter, came after shares of the Web search leader set a fresh lifetime high of $480.78, following a strong quarterly financial report last week.
The Google Custom Search Engine is the company's biggest push yet to rely on 'the wisdom of crowds,' where rival Yahoo and start-ups such as Rollyo.com and Eurekster.com have focused for several years.
'It is basically applying human judgment by saying I can make search better by allowing people to decide,' said Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li.
Google is moving beyond the formula-driven, one-size-fits all way it indexes the Web to a relativistic approach for finding sites. The move also points toward a balkanization of what different groups of people see on the World Wide Web.