One of the most useful features in Google is the ability to harness the power of its search engines in a customized search — that is, a search interface that only returns results from sites that you have preselected. So rather than searching through billions of pages, you can search just the three, twelve, twenty or however many sites you would like.

I’ve added a bunch of Google custom searches to the CA Library Blog — here are some of them…

• Book Review Search — this search includes major newspapers and other sources for current literary reviews, including the New York Times, Washington Post and the London Times.
• Discovery Networks Search — search through the network of Discovery programming, including Discovery Channel, Science Channel and Planet Green.
• History Search — a search of several history publications, including American Heritage, Smithsonian, National Geographic and HistoryNet.
• News Media Search — search major network news outlets ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS.
• PBS Video Search — search for streaming video available from PBS, including clips and full episodes of NOVA, Nature and American Experience.
• Science Search — a search of several science publications, including Science Daily, ScienceNews and Scientific American.

I’m always developing new types of searches and tweaking the ones I’ve already developed…it’s quick, easy, and looks great! To access the custom searches, just follow the Custom Searches link in the menu bar above.

To learn more about how you can develop your own custom searches and integrate them into your own web presence — website, blog, etc. — visit the Google Custom Search page. You’ll need a Google account — highly recommended! See me in Academy Library and I’ll show you just how easy it is to customize your search experience!