Custom Search Engine with Google

Here is another good tool that would be classified as a web 2.0 tool - basically because the interface is very intuitive and you don't need to be a programmer to make this work. Have you ever been frustrated with students doing research in class because of the lack of depth they glean from the websites they choose? If so, wouldn't it help if you could pick the sites they are choosing to do their research from? Google Custom Search Engines can help you with that. Basically, you pick the sites they can search from. All you do is provide the students with the link to the search engine that you have created and their search results will come exculsively from the sites that you choose! Again, here is a youtube video that walks you through setting up your own search engine:

One thing to consider, the url that is created for your search engine is huge...you can cut it down to a few characters by using another free web 2.0 app like www.tinyurl.com. Here is a short clip on how it works:

Sorry, the music is brutal!