Search AUGI and/or AUGI Forums using Google Co-op
*** Disclaimer: The below is not officially from AUGI, nor is it supported in any way, shape or form by AUGI. I am presenting it here, purely as an experiment, some fun I had with using Google Co-op. ***
In the early hours of this morning, I was unable to sleep :( I therefore decide to spend some of those waking hours, playing around with Google Co-op.
The following sentence is how Google defines Google Co-op - Google Co-op is a platform that enables you to customize the web search experience for users of both Google and your own website.
Seeing as AUGI now allows web search engines to index its content (this was not the case until earlier this year), I thought it would be fun (and somewhat useful) to experiment with Google Co-op, and look to build three simple custom search engines:
- AUGI Forums - Search only the AUGI Forums.
- AUGI (minus AUGI Forums) - Search AUGI.com minus the AUGI Forums.
- AUGI and AUGI Forums - Search AUGI.com and the AUGI Forums.
By using a combination of the above custom search engines and standard Google search operators [ Basics of Search / Advanced Search / Google Help : Cheat Sheet ], we are able to harness the power of Google's search technology to easily and quickly search AUGI.com and/or AUGI Forums.
As a bonus, if you use iGoogle (formerly called Google Personalized Homepage), you can add any of the three custom search engines to your personal Google homepage as a gadget (widget). To do this, simply click the Add to Google button 
found on each of the three custom search engine home pages.
As a Brucey Bonus, if you have a blog or website, and wish to place any of the three custom search engines on your site (as a gadget), click the link Add this search engine to your blog or webpage, located on the home pages of the three custom search engines. When using this option, you are given the opportunity to customise the final appearance of the gadget, thus allowing you to better reflect your site's design / layout.
Listed below are the actual Add to Google buttons and examples showing blog or webpage gadgets:
To see a blog or webpage gadget out in the wild, take a look HERE and HERE. Kudos to Bill Adams for being a lab-rat ;-)
Time permitting, I may spend some time improving the layout / interface, and look to tweak some of the advanced options available. In the meantime, it works as is, I therefore encourage people to give it a try... take it out for a test-spin... you never know, you may actually find it to be somewhat useful.
Technorati Tags: AUGI | AUGI Forums | Google | Google Co-op | Search | Search Engine | iGoogle | Google Personalized Homepage | Gadget | Widget
