Make Your Own Search Engine?

I want to create some sort of software/plugin that when people download it makes their homepage (of chrome, firefox, whatever) the homepage of my search engine, which looks exactly like google (and uses their search results), but displays my ads from my adsense account.

I've seen a few of these around but can't find any examples right now.

Does anyone have any links to some more info about how to get this started? Just looking for some basic info right now about how it all works...

Thanks!

The default home page of firefox is one of those

It's very easy to setup: design your "google like" home page, and use the "custom search engine" function of adsense.

So it is!! Sounds easy enough.

Any idea of how to incorporate this into some software package/plugin that installs it as the homepage once they install it? Thinking of a way to mass distribute it....

Is doing this against their TOS?

Also is there anyway to make the seach page even more like google with Image search, Maps, Gmail, etc at the top. Basically I don't want people to realize a huge difference between my search engine and the real google.

Very smart idea. You could monetize this very nice if you do it right. If you have a little extra cash, say $50 USD, find a lawyer on justanswers (just google them) and explain what you are trying to accomplish. Make sure you explain things in a very ethical manner. You'll pay $20 - $40 for the advice of a real lawyer. I recommend them. Once you know what the legal grounds are you can easily proceed.

I'm no coder so programming and implementation isn't my thing. I'm more on marketing, so my question to you would be:

• What value are you giving to the users of your toolbar?
• Why should they download it?
• How do you plan on generating buzz and getting the attention of the masses?

You may want to check out the following companies / websites for inspiration. Not sure if you know what ppv is. Pay Per View advertising (banner popups) It's pretty big and many internet marketers use it. Its basically associated with a browser toolbar.

• LeadImpact is the PPV network and they use a browser tool called "hotbar". Just google hotbar, download it and see how it works. Be prepared, you'll get a bunch of junk! But you'll learn.
• TrafficVance is another huge PPV.

Maybe you can somehow connect it with social media and you can get everyone talking about it sharing it, etc.


Hope this helps!

thecashbag said:

Is doing this against their TOS?

Click to expand...

do you even need to ask?

thecashbag said:

So it is!! Sounds easy enough.

Any idea of how to incorporate this into some software package/plugin that installs it as the homepage once they install it? Thinking of a way to mass distribute it....

Click to expand...

This is the hard part, I thought you knew it already. If you don't master this part + the promoting part to get people to actually download it, this will get you nowhere.

thecashbag said:

Is doing this against their TOS?

Click to expand...

I don't think so, but maybe you should read them to make sure.

thecashbag said:

Also is there anyway to make the seach page even more like google with Image search, Maps, Gmail, etc at the top. Basically I don't want people to realize a huge difference between my search engine and the real google.

Click to expand...

This is up to how you design the page.

BlackHatCams yes I'm well versed in PPV. That was one way I was thinking of advertising.

Babylon Search is an example of what I'm trying to create.

People download some sort of software (games, smiley's, etc) in exchange for having my search page as their default search engine (put that in the disclaimer before they download). Once installed it becomes very hard to uninstall without any advanced technical skills. And it integrates with all browsers so that when searching in the URL bar instead of searching directly via the search page it still uses my search engine to display results.

Babylon (and others) don't seem to use Adsense though, does anyone now the advertising network they are using, and how they generate their search results (since they are not using Adsense search)??

Lots of lawsuits surrounding this type of thing. Google Adware and lawsuits or FTC charges. Things like improper disclosure, making it hard to uninstall, not helping consumers understand the implications of downloading your plugin, not labeling your adverts, etc (simple standard disclaimers are not enough), can be real FTC issues.

Good luck bud. It's most certainly possible, just need to take the proper precautions and establish a distribution plan that will yield a decent ROI. Your best bet would be to first focus on what type of toolbar/plugin you can develop that will provide real value.