Oracle Custom Search
Posted by Tyler Muth on November 29, 2010
Like many people reading this blog, google is a tool I use on a daily basis to find answers on Oracle Technology. I use it to search Oracle Documentation, OTN Forums, blogs, etc. There is such a large community of really talented people that you can usually find an answer quickly. However, there are a few problems with googling for Oracle answers. First, I find myself using the site: operator a lot to search Oracle documentation. This works fine, but I still end up with 8i & 9i doc when I would prefer never to see those versions again. There are also a number of sites that use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques to relentlessly inject themselves into my results and I would prefer not to see those sites at all (Please don’t name them here. We all know who they are and I don’t want to deal with lawyers. If you name any specific sites in the comments, I will remove them immediately). There are also some sites which I trust more than others and would like to add a bit of “weight” to those sites in my results.
So, I created a Google Custom Search (http://www.google.com/cse/). I removed the sites I want to avoid, added some categories based on my search habits and customized the colors a bit. You can find my search at:
Update: You can add my search to your browser’s search bar by navigating to this page and simply clicking a link . Thanks for suggesting it Stew.
Feel free to use mine or create your own, it’s pretty simple. Enjoy!
Tony said
This is pretty slick. I guess I’ve been under a rock, didn’t know you could create a custom search this way. Thanks for sharing the fruit of your labor.
Stew said
Sounds great.
If only I could add this to my list of FireFox search engines life would be perfect! When I’m on this web page, I see I can add this blog or WordPress to my list of FF search engines, but it doesn’t work on the GCS page. [sigh]
Thanks for sharing this.
Tyler Muth said
Ask and you shall receive! Great suggestion.
Mathieu said
Hello Tyler,
When I am trying your search engine, i am getting an error page 403:
Your client does not have permission to get URL /cse?cx=003527421622096236377%3Aa9soltgczuk&ie=UTF-8&q=dbms_comparison from this server.
Regards,
Mathieu
Dimitri Gielis said
Very nice job Tyler!
Your posts and tools are an absolute delight.
Thanks,
Dimitri
Christoph Ruepprich said
Thanks a bunch, Tyler. I look forward to using your custom search.
kevinclosson said
High Tyler,
I tried your custom oracle search and it offered me some of my blog posts. I guess you won’t have to deal with my lawyer.
kevinclosson said
Oops… I type Hi Tyler and my spell checker “fixed” that for me. Sorry for the typo