Roll Your Own Search
Rollyo is a free, customizable search service created by blogger Dave Pell. Anyone can create their own “searchroll”, a custom search that narrows the search to only include results from a list of sites you choose.
The tool is basically a custom front-end for Yahoo’s search engine. It’s an easy and effective way to narrow your search results down to trusted sources only. When you set up your own searchroll, you pick up to twenty-five sites to search. You maintain this list, called your source list, and only you can modify it. Users have set up searchrolls to search sites for topics like hybrid car news, music industry news, organic gardening, bric-a-brac, and other niche stuff. Rollyo is especially useful for people who search multiple sites offering the same service — say, for example, auction sites or online bookstores.
I created my own searchroll this morning called Hotwired Search. It lets you search Webmonkey, Wired News, Wired Magazine, and all of the various Wired Blogs. Test it out and roll your own. Make your searchroll public so others can use it.
The best part about Rollyo is that they offer ready-to-paste code that makes your searchroll portable. So, feel free to add the Hotwired Search to your own website, your Firefox toolbar, or even your collection of desktop widgets in Mac OS X and Windows.
