News 

The Google Custom Search Engine lets users choose which pages and websites they want to search, to determine how the content should be prioritised and to format the search results page. While users can choose to restrict their search results to include only certain pages and sites, they can alternatively allocate them a higher priority and ranking within the main Google index.

Google explained that the new tools are a response to requests from customers and Internet users.

'We want to make it easy for anyone to create a search engine

Custom Search Engines include advertisements, with the revenue split between Google and the user. Universities and non-profit and government organisations can opt to exclude them.

Google Custom Search Engine is available at google.com/coop/cse. International versions will be introduced over the coming weeks.

Yahoo! introduced a similar service, Search Builder, earlier this year, but Google said its tools provide more customisation options.

'We have some features we feel are quite unique,' said Mayer. 'We allow people to restrict or prioritise search results based on the sites they've chosen.'