Using Customized Search to Target Original Documents

I've created a customized search engine that favors results from original documents in medical journals, government sites and a few carefully selected (and labelled) blogs. Give it a try--it's on the right-hand side of this blog (used to be in the upper-right corner). I think you'll find it returns top-quality results with fewer distractions.

Using a regular search engine often brings up sites that repackage material from other sources. I'm not always sure if they've done it right--what they've added or left out. Typically these re-purposers don't even say how old the information is. That's a big no-no in my book.

Enter my customized search engine (thank you, Google).

So far, I've been pretty pleased with the results. Yesterday, I needed to look up the top ten causes of death in the U.S. Here's what I got when I typed [major causes of death] into the search box of my customized Google search engine (You may have to enlarge the screen to read it):



My very first result is from the National Center for Health Statistics and gave me exactly what I was looking for. Number two and three weren't shabby either. I can use the journal article on the changing health of China for a different project I'm working on and the W.H.O. page is a good reminder of the lives lost to tobacco around the world.

And here's what I got from Google's regular search engine:



The first entry from regular Google search is from Ben Best, president of the Cryonics Institute, an organization that freezes people after they die in the hopes of reviving them later on. The second entry is a repackaging of the statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics. What I'm looking for shows up in the number three position.

I would have found what I wanted eventually, but I like the quality of the results on my customized search engine better.

So, give my customized search engine a try and let me know what you think. You can use the search box in the upper right hand corner of this page. (Click here for the homepage, if you want to add this search engine to your site.) Or you can create your own customized search engine at Google Co-op.

If all you want to do is search this blog, then type your entry in the search box in the upper left of this page.