Google Co-op... I do wonder sometimes where they come up with all the awful names. Maybe not quite as bad as the Web 2.0 names but still. Ask any Brit what they think Google Co-op might offer and I'd be fairly happy to guess that it wouldn't be a custom search engine. Possibly an Internet equivolent of a local corner shop - or even funeral service...?

Anyway...

Sometimes I sit and bang my head on the desk trying to come up with content for a site that might support keywords that we're aiming for. Ideally, obviously, I'm actually looking for interesting content that makes people return to the site.

One new idea that I've added to my list is a Google custom search engine (AKA Google Co-op).

You login to your Google account and click on Co-op and you're off. Google gives you a couple of snippets - one to insert into your "search" page and one to insert into your "results" page. You select all the sites that you want it to search - which means that you are able to only show results from relevant sites. Upload your page to your site and you're away. You can invite "collaborators" to help you maintain your search engine - e.g. help keep the list of sites that are searched up to date and relevant.

Bit of a downside is that unless you're an educational establishment or a .gov site (and maybe some other exceptions...) you have to display adverts. Theoretically you can create an Adsense account so that you get some money for these adverts - but they're still adverts which take customers off your site....