Google Programmable Search Engine

Custom Search Engine

Released on October 23, 2006,^[3] Google Custom Search Engine started as a way to let webmasters index and provide search for their own sites.^[2] It also let anyone create their own search engine by searching a list of links as well as the sites linked from those sites.^[4] This allows custom search engine users to narrow the web that they are searching and have a less cluttered search experience.^[2][5] You can also limit the results to only originate from specific countries.^[5] The search engine can be integrated into Chrome^[6] and Firefox browsers.^[7]

From 2014 until 2016, Custom Search Engines were among those found to be vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack leading to malware being installed on over 1 million computers.^[8]

In 2019, the European Union fined Google for anti-trust violations for not allowing other advertisers to advertise in its custom search engines.^[9]

As of January 2026, custom search engines can no longer query more than 50 domains.^[10]

Topics

Topics are specific areas of search, which can be developed by people with knowledge of a certain subject. These topics are then displayed at the top of relevant Google web searches, so the user can refine the searches to what they want.^{[11][non-primary source needed]}