Google adds new features to Custom Search tool

The search engine released six new themes for Google Custom Search. All six themes can be customized by changing fonts, colors, backgrounds, promotion settings, as well as interactive features such as tabbing and mouse-overs. 

Users can also decide page layouts and where the search box and search results should be placed. According to the company, this new feature will work with Google's Mobile Custom Search which can be accessed from Android, iPhone and Palm Pre devices. Google also introduced a new search option for the Custom Search called Structured Search. The feature will allow user to make searches based on specific attributes rather than general terms.

For example, users can search specifically for a particular author and view only the results matching that query. This new option will certainly make finding specific content easier, but only those "specific attributes that the page content has specified via metadata markup" can be used to tailor results, the company said.

Under Structured Search, Web publishers can also provide thumbnails and link, and incorporate them into search results.

Another new feature for Google's Custom Search tool is the Wikipedia skin. From this, Wikipedia users can log in to their accounts and edit their skin to include Google's Custom Search feature. Wikipedia's search field will be replaced with Custom Search which displays three tabs that provide relevant Wikipedia results, wikis and related third-party sites.