Google Programmable Search Engine

[Sushubh]

Programmable Search Engine by Google

Help people find what they need on your website. Add a customizable search box to your web pages and show fast, relevant results powered by Google.

programmablesearchengine.google.com

 

[agantuk]

Must say the image search results are pretty appalling when I search for iPhone on IBF

 

[Sushubh]

that is largely because google is not indexing imgur images. i have seen this happen for a long time now. other services are handled well. google seems to have issues with imgur... and most of the images hosted on this forum are from imgur.

i posted this just today on their help forum. i don't expect a response though.

Google Image Search does not index images hosted on Imgur for my website - Web Search Help

i have also been pushing the imgur guy to offer cname support so that the images hosted on imgur can be shown as running on user's own domain name. something like what bitly offers. his response is largely that this would not attract many users.

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majority of the images indexed are from the days i was using flickr for image hosting. even imageshack is indexed properly. i sometimes use eho.st and even these images are indexed rather quickly. imgur is an exception and that makes me sad.

 

[Sushubh]

found the problem. imgur.com is blocking indexing by search engines.

i have pinged the developer behind imgur...

i.imgur.com is blocking all search ... / Suggestions forum / Imgur

if this is not changed, i might be tempted to look for an alternative

 

[Sushubh]

took me a while but i finally managed to get alan to change the robots.txt file on i.imgur.com

indexing of imgur hosted images should begin now and the image search on the custom search engine should become whole lot relevant!

 

[Sushubh]

Updates to our Web Search Products & Programmable Search Engine Capabilities

Evolving Programmable Search Engine

Dear Programmable Search Engine user,

Programmable Search Engine helps hundreds of partners – from academic institutions to retail websites – serve their users’ search needs on their sites.

Looking forward, we’ll be evolving our offerings to provide more focused and capable solutions for every use case. This evolution is designed to ensure a high-quality experience for users and partners.

A clearer path for every search need

We're simplifying and modernizing our offerings so you can choose the best tool for your goals.
•For site-specific search: The Programmable Search Element (the “Search Element”) is being simplified to be the best tool for creating rich, focused search experiences on your own websites.
•For enterprise-grade needs: For advanced features like AI-powered conversational search and enterprise-grade grounding, we continue to offer Google Vertex AI Search as a solution.
•For global web search needs: We understand some partners have use cases that require querying beyond a designated subset of domains. Our full web search solution is available for those requiring our entire index; please complete this form to register your interest.

Planning your transition to more powerful tools

We are excited to help you harness the full potential of these evolving solutions. As you plan for the future, here is your path forward for the transition, which can be completed any time between now and January 1, 2027.
•“Sites to search” feature for users of the Search Element querying 50 or fewer domains: The Search Element remains the optimal solution for delivering highly optimized and focused results.
•“Search the entire web” option for users of the Search Element querying more than 50 domains: If your use case necessitates querying more than 50 domains or is set to “Search the entire web”, contact us to express your interest in the more advanced full web search solution and get more information about its capabilities and pricing. Your transition to an alternative solution needs to be completed by January 1, 2027.
•For users of the Custom Search JSON API: Vertex AI Search is a favourable alternative for up to 50 domains. Alternatively, if your use case necessitates full web search, contact us to express your interest in and get more information about our full web search solution. Your transition to an alternative solution needs to be completed by January 1, 2027.

To prepare for this transition, as of today, all new engines must be configured to use the “Sites to search” feature. This change impacts only new engines; existing engines are not affected and can continue to use the “Search the entire web” option until January 1, 2027.

This evolution will help us create more focused products, so we can provide a better search experience for our developer partners. We’re excited to build the future of search with you.

Thank you,
The Google Programmable Search Engine Team