Create Google Custom Search Engine

[daniel1212av]

I do a lot of searching with Google, often on Christian apologetical issues, and often the results are either from sites which are not providing the kind of results i want, and or are superficial.  Even in  searching for computer/Internet issues, I often find that the top results are rather cursory, as it seems Web masters known how to use keywords and other techniques to get themselves listed near the top, whereas some sites are more likely to provide more substance. 

I have searched in vain for a Christian search engine that is not like the rest, and  which often return liberal  sites  as top results, but I am blessed to know of a lot of good sites and I thought it maybe Google would have a way to make one's own custom search engine, and found that is indeed possible. You first need a Google account,  then you create your search engine with lots of your favorites sites, and can even place a search bar for that engine that on your home page, which what i did with mine (way down the very bottom at https://www.peacebyjesus.nett)  note also that surprisingly,  Google (while biased and liberal) also has their own  http://apologeticssearch.com search page (with  ads), but which can include results from cults .

The following is how it worked when I originally created mine, though it seems only 10 sites are allowed under the free version.

 To begin creating your own, I recommend collecting the url's of the sites you want to search, and either sign in to your Google account and then under My Account, look for Custom Search, or  go to https://cse.google.com/cse/all

Next, you fill in the Basic information. You can choose to "Search only included sites", or  "Search the entire web but emphasize included sites." I am using the latter for now. You do get some sponsored sites in a box up top along with your search results,  and if your are a registered non-profit you can opt out of that.   Then under Select some sites, add one URL per line.

Next, at the bottom, you will have to confirm, "I have read and agree to the Terms of Service,"  4,491 words.  This is mostly the basic legalese which prevails in other TOS agreements, including the ambiguous "the Site shall not contain any ... hate-related or...any other material...that violate or encourage conduct that would violate any criminal laws, any other applicable laws,...statute, ordinance. See as some in the media sought to implicate the Bible in hate crimes, this can be problematic. Even many Christian sites include this ambiguity in their TOS. This one also warns that "Google may... discontinue...the Service...if.."you engage in any action that reflects poorly on Google or otherwise disparages or devalues the Google Brand Features or Google's reputation or goodwill."  Which some would say my criticism just did. 

As you come across more sites you can edit your search engine under My Account>My search engines>Control Panel>Sites and use the Add Sites button Once you click on it, there is an option to "Include sites in bulk", so you can add all your collection at once. There are different settings for the sites you add, and i am not sure about what their complete effects are, but i usually just choose "Include all pages whose address contains this URL." You can edit these prefs for individual links by clicking on them after, under Sites.  You can also make more than one search engine. 

I have added about 40 quality sites to my search engine,  thanks be to God,  and find that this engine more consistently provides higher quality results in doing searches.  I also have my Search Preferences set to show 50 results per page.

Pro 15:28  The heart of the righteous studieth to answer: but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things.
Pro 23:23  Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

 So thank God for discernment, and ability to better choose where one shall "shop."

 
 

[nChrist]

Hello Brother Daniel,

Thanks sincerely for the information. I have a huge collection of Christian bookmarks of various quality and purpose (i.e. ministry, churches, Christian organizations, Christian materials, Christian computer resources, cults, etc.). I probably have over 1,000, but sadly I haven't rated them or recorded other information in the description for the bookmark. When I get some extra time, I might try to categorize the best ones and try this. Thanks again.

[daniel1212av]

Yes, thank God for such.  We have so much, yet the enemy has his corruptions, and i want to filter that out more. But if we lived in N. Korea most all would be filtered out.  Pray for missionary Robert Park and the people in N. Korea.

(Psa 9:12)  "When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble."

[nChrist]

Yes, it would be the opposite in North Korea, as they need special software to get Christian materials and visit Christian sites. I read about it once and don't claim to understand all of it, but their government has some sort of blocks installed for everything Christian. I do pray for the people of North Korea.

[daniel1212av]

Thanks for praying.  And when they pass laws that make the Bible and Christian sermons illegal,  by outlawing any online content that would promote prejudice based upon..sexual preference..religion (as some EULAs do already), and use such ambiguity to implicate the Bible as so doing, then every Christian will be illegal on the Internet. The language of my ISP (Verizon) could allow that already, and "otherwise violation of any law" also covers a lot of ground. A few years ago, a broadcaster implicated James Dobson in the murder of Matthew Shepherd, and a Christian station in the UK almost lost their license as Charles Stanley said Jesus was the only way, and Michael Usef condemned witchcraft.  Fred Phelps doesn't help either, except liberals who use such as a basis to pass censorship laws, while Hollywood and its kind can blasphemes Christ in habitual pattern.

Well, 2,000 years ago John said "the whole world lieth in wickedness"  (1 John 5:19), and i need to far more holy in heart and deed.

[nChrist]

Hello Brother Daniel,

God's Word speaks volumes about what is yet to come, and that time appears to be growing near. The signs are all around the world. As for us, we can just pray that God will keep using us until He Comes to take us Home. They can't stop God's Word and His Message, regardless of how hard they try. Only God can do that, and He still does as He pleases in Heaven and on earth. I love His Promise that His Word will never return void. It will always accomplish His Purpose.

Isaiah 55:6-13 KJV  Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:  7  Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.  8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.  9  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.  10  For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:  11  So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.  12  For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.  13  Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

Love In Christ,
Tom

[daniel1212av]

In the interest of speed, for the king's business sometimes required haste, you might be interested in the PsTools: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896649.aspx  I usually put the PC into into Hibernation (when i do as well) using the PsTools. You just install it, and runpsshutdown.exe,  and make a shortcut on the Desktop, "C:\Program Files\PsTools\psshutdown.exe" -h. When you hit it (double left click) then you have 19 secs till Hibernation (the PC, not you). Other options are also available. You can also make a keyboard shortcut for anything you have a shortcut icon for, by right clicking and choosing Properties down the bottom, and then Shortcut at the top, and the pressing the Ctrl Alt and another key of our choice (like H) in that order, and then hit OK.

You can use this with the AutoHotKey, which allows you to launch programs, open folders or web sites, one at a time or many apps simultaneously using the Windows key (#) and others.
#+::Run (Win and Shift)
#^::Run (Win and Ctrl)
#!::Run (Win and Alt)
#>+::Run (Win and Right Shift)

You install it and then create an ahk script (right click on desktop, point to New AutoHotkey Script or New >> Text Document  if the former is not listed.
 
Type a name for the file, ensuring that it ends in .ahk. For example: Test.ahk
Right-click the file and choose Edit Script.
On a new blank line, type the following:
and ..).  After the "Ensures a consistent starting directory, you create your commands, as below using Windows key and Shift and a number.  Do not copy explanatory texts in parenthesis.

#+1::Run C:\Windows\System32\services.msc (Windows services)
#+2::Run mmsys.cpl  (Sounds and volume)
#+3::Run C:\Windows\System32\restore\rstrui.exe  (System Restore)
#+4::Run Write.exe  (WordPad)
#+5::Run powercfg.cpl (Power Configuration)
#+6::Run ncpa.cpl (Network)
#+7::Run devmgmt.msc (Device Manager)
#+8::Run diskmgmt.msc (Disk Management)
#+9::Run msconfig (System Configuration Utility)

To launch a web site, you could use

#+P::Run http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/

To hot ket the aforementioned Hibernation mode, as well as the abort, you could use

#H::Run C:\Program Files\PsTools\psshutdown.exe -h
#!H::Run C:\Program Files\PsTools\psshutdown.exe -a

The latter uses the Alt key (!) with the Windows key and H.

To launch many programs at once, you make a akh Below is one that launches my 5 main programs (applications) at once, using the Windows key and F1 shortcut:

#+f1::
Run c:\QVWIN\QVWIN.exe
Run c:\Program Files\E-SWORD\e-Sword.exe
Run c:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3\program\swriter.exe
Run C:\Program Files\2Firefox\firefox.exe -no-remote  -p
Run c:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe
return

You can make a shortcut to these scripts and place them in your Startup folder to your desktop (Start>Programs>Startup You can also launch urls the same way with it:  #c::Run http://forums.christiansunite.com

Also along the speed issue, is the CacheMyWork utility: http://cachemywork.codeplex.com/. Sometimes i I was thinking that Windows should have a way to retain sessions, like Firefox does with open tabs, so searched and right away found this. It just adds whatever open apps that you choose as a RunOnce reg. key, so it does not save them, but it worked today. Also very useful is the

Also helpful freeware is the WinPatrol http://www.winpatrol.com/download.html, which alerts to certain system changes, and allows you to see and change startup progs, etc.  No EULA to even sign, and have used it for years, praise the Lord.

To keep tabs on your Hard drive temp  is the free Active@ Disk Monitor http://www.snapfiles.com/get/activediskmon.html

To Disable Windows Update restart nagging see http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/06/25/temporarily-turn-off-windows-update-restart-nags-using-leave-me/

For a better clock, that does seconds, and will show your free Ram, and load, use TclockEX http://downloadgotcha125et.com/TClockEx/3000-2072_4-10637571.html#rateit I use this script  in TClock properties ddd, M-d\-/hh:mm:ss\-/R-L 

To make custom icons, you could try IcoFX  http://www.snapfiles.com/php/download.php?id=109845&a=7129282&tag=1541684&loc=1  But I think i used Icon Suite  http://www.tucows.com/preview/217176  to make these   


 

[nChrist]

Hello Brother Daniel,

First, thanks for all of the ideas and information. We do have a help thread up about posting pictures and graphics on the forum, but let me try something that might help.

First, you must have a hotlink to existing pictures on the Internet, and I assume that you do on Flicker. Just having the pictures or graphics on your own computer won't work, and there is no way to upload pictures to the forum. Graphics work with a hot address to wherever you have your pictures and graphics on a server. I use Photobucket.

Here's an example. I'm going to change one of the characters in the address that calls the graphics so you can see the syntax of the "image" command. So, keep in mind that I'm replacing "[ and ]" with "{ and }" so that you can see it. The working command would use "[ and ]". Here goes:

{img}http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i160/tlr10/357/jesusan2.gif{/img}

The above is the working address to one of my graphics, and it would work if I changed the "{ and }" to "[ and ]".



The above is with the character change, and it displays the graphic automatically, embedded in the post.

If you want someone to click the address before showing the graphic in the post, you would put just the address without the "img" tags - like this:

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i160/tlr10/357/jesusan2.gif

The above is the address. If you click it, you should see a window open up separately and the graphic. Your photo or graphic server service should give you the proper address to the photos and graphics you have stored. I hope this helps. Otherwise, we have a very detailed help on this topic, and I don't know of any other way to explain it.

Love In Christ,
Tom

[daniel1212av]

Thanks, I did that by selecting the link and hitting the insert picture icon,  but it disappeared,  because it is not the right kind of link. I had gone to Flicker where i had an uploaded a gif  image, and right clicked and copied the link,   but it do not see on Flicker how to get the link with the gif extension which my image had. So i went back an d found the little gray Share button (why not make it conspicuous?) , and so now see above. Praise God. I needed more  diligence.     

 

[nChrist]

I think that each photo/graphic service has little details to learn and get used to. The same is true for photobucket - the one I use. It gives three kinds of addresses for each graphic, and I did get them confused for awhile. My first trick I had to learn on photobucket was how to turn on the display of addresses for each graphic, but that was a long time ago. I use a lot of graphics, so I have an automated way of using them now. Believe me, it was a pain to get set up, but I literally have thousands of graphics.

Love In Christ,
Tom

[daniel1212av]

Hey, i never noticed that CU has a Google custom search up the top of this page. Is that new? But evidently it only searches this site.

[nChrist]

Hey, i never noticed that CU has a Google custom search up the top of this page. Is that new? But evidently it only searches this site.

Hello Brother Daniel,

I think that we've always had a Google search engine of one form or another. I've used the Christians Unite search engine for local searches, so I really don't know the advantages or disadvantages of using the local Google search engine. Actually, I've never used it, so I don't know what it does. I'm sorry that I wasn't that much help.

Love In Christ,
Tom