Google offers a service whereby anyone can create a specialised search engine by limiting the pages and web sites that are indexed. The service has several additional features but for our purposes the most basic features would suffice.

• http://www.google.com/coop/cse/

• You must have a Google account (free registration)
• You can change most aspects of it later, so don't worry about putting in the wrong information.
• You can specify just one or several pages/sites to index, and you can specify them in interesting ways (eg only pages that contain the letters “about”). You can also exclude pages by a pattern.

Unfortunately, the URL of the search engine is a bit difficult to remember, but you can easily link to it from any page.

Here is a test search engine that will search only pages of this wiki, as well as pages from the Wikipedia that contain the letters “transl” in their URL:

• Translate Wiki Search Engine (try doing a search for “machine”).

How to create a custom search in Opera 9.5

1. Go to a page that contains the search box.
2. Right-click the search box and select “Create search”.
3. Type in a name and a shortcut for the search (e.g. “Art of Illusion” and “aoi”).
4. Done!

Methods to use:

• Select text, then right-click the selection and use “Search with…” → “Art of Illusion”.
• Double-click a word (it will be selected), then use “Search with…” → “Art of Illusion”.
• Open a new tab (Ctrl+T), then type “aoi searchword” and ENTER to search for “searchword”.

How to create a custom search in Firefox 2

1. Go to a page that contains the search box.
2. Right-click the search box and select “Add keyword for this search”.
3. The caption will read “Add bookmark”, but don't worry, you're actually adding a search.
4. Type in a name and a shortcut for the search (e.g. “Art of Illusion” and “aoi”).
5. Done!

Methods to use:

• Open a new tab (Ctrl+T), then type “aoi searchword” and ENTER to search for “searchword”.