This Tool Allows You to Create Your Own Version of Google
Google continues to add more and more clutter to its search product, from advertising to artificial intelligence. You can get around this by turning off AI search results or even ditching Google for an alternative . But what if you could create your own replacement that used Google’s search engine, but without all those features you hate?
As Android Authority’s Mitya Rutnik pointed out, this is exactly what you can do with a little-known Google tool called Programmable Search Engine . Rutnik says he regularly uses one custom search engine he created with the tool to search only for articles from his native Slovenia, and another to search only for articles on websites owned by his employer.
To be clear, Google does not offer a programmable search engine with this use case in mind. Have you ever visited a website and noticed that the search bar says “Advanced by Google”? This tool allows websites to create specific search bars. However, even if you don’t have a website, there’s nothing stopping you from logging into the service, creating a search engine, and using it as your personal Google.
How to Use a Programmable Search Engine to Create Your Own Google
To get started, go to the Programmable Search Engine landing page . You will need to add a new search engine.
The initial setup doesn’t do much other than allow you to limit your search to a specific set of websites. (Don’t worry: there are other ways to customize it later.) When you’re done, click the blue Create button.
Now return to the All Search Engines page and select the engine you just created. This is where the real customization begins. There is a Region field that you can use to limit the country your results come from. (American websites tend to dominate the Internet – perhaps you’re not American and only want results for your country.)
After this, you can add a list of sites to search if you want to limit yourself to a few search queries. Alternatively, you can add a list of sites to exclude , provided there are multiple news sources or blogs that you don’t trust. This alone can improve your search results, provided that there are certain websites that you would rather never see again in your life .
Then go to the Appearance section. From here you can customize the font, color and overall look of the search page. There are several pre-installed themes to choose from, or you can dig in and customize everything yourself. You can even turn off thumbnails in search results if you wish.
Explore different options and save your changes when you like what you’ve created. Finally, when you’re done, you can go to the Review tab. There you will find a link to your new search engine – click it to try it out.
The results will likely be as close as possible to what Google offered in 2001 that you’re likely to find in the mid-2020s, meaning you’ll only see results from the Internet. The only possible exception would be a link to Google Image Search if you have enabled this feature. There are no sidebars, no AI reviews—nothing but internet search results. Obviously this is not everyone’s preferred way of searching, but I’m sure some people will understand it.
You can set the new search engine as your homepage if you want, or even add it to your browser as a custom search engine if you want to like it.