We are all to a certain extent, victims of Google's success: With so many sites indexed, finding quality search results can be a chore, as we must slog our way through a virtual quagmire of Spam-dex and well-intentioned, but inaccurate, hits. Any search result set these days seems to be loaded with its fair share of tripe. If only we could combine the best attributes of a directory (that is, an index created by an editor knowledgeable in the subject matter) and the search engine spider (that is, an index that is dynamic and up to date).
Google hasn't missed this need either and to help make it a reality, they've created the Google Coop Search Engines. I've been working with this for the past few weeks and like it so much, I've gone ahead to create a search engine that is targeted at one of my favorite topics: Open Source Content Management Systems.
The project, cleverly named CMS Search, has just launched. It indexes a hand-picked selection of nearly 80 Open Source CMS resources. It includes not only the standard Google interface, but a custom built advanced search functionality and a set of filters that allow users to refine their searches.
Visit the site and give it a run; I think you will find that it is producing high quality results - without the dross. CMS Search is located at http://cms-search.waterandstone.com.
Enjoy!
