[Web4lib] Google Public Service Search

[steven turner]

Yes, we used Google search service for around a semester. We quickly  
found that Google-cached items stuck around a longer than we liked  
(in the search results), the stats were too minimal, and there was  
absolutley no support from Google - not even cursory, good-for-PR  
type of support  that gets back to you in week when they have time -  
there was just a black hole in terms of anwers to any kind of  
question ever; plus, becasue of the caching issues, updates to our  
site would go unoticed for months. The whole deal left a bad tast in  
our mouths, and we switched to pico search, a fairly inexpensive  
hosted search appliance that fulfilled our needs quite handily. Great  
stats, and tons of configurable options.

Steve Turner

On Sep 15, 2006, at 3:13 PM, Pons, Lisa (ponslm) wrote:

> Yes, we use it as well-unfortunately. After updating our main site, I
> went to update Google. I even emailed them and got this:
>
> "Thank you for contacting us about our Public Service Search. Other  
> than
> retrieving login information, we're currently unable to provide
> individual assistance for this free program. We've posted answers to
> frequently asked questions on our site at
> http://services.google.com/pss_faq.html, so you may find the answer to
> your question there. If you've forgotten your username or password,
> please email us at
> publicservice-support+password at google.com for assistance."
>
>
>  After much digging, finally found a posting on a google groups
> webmaster-support  site that said they were "working" to have this
> available soon, but didn't know when it would be. I posted that we  
> were
> waiting- maybe it more post, they will do something!
>
> Very unhelpful, but I guess you get what you pay for.
>
> Lisa Pons-Haitz
> Webmaster
> University Libraries
> University of Cincinnati
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
>> [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Shashi Pinheiro
>> Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 3:59 PM
>> To: web4lib at webjunction.org
>> Subject: [Web4lib] Google Public Service Search
>>
>>
>> Anyone using Google Public Service Search for their
>> library/university web site?
>>
>> Is this the login for getting search reports/customizations
>> https://services.google.com/publicservice/login or is there a new  
>> one?
>>
>> The message that this service is currently unavailable has been there
>> for 2 weeks+.   Did I miss something here?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Shashi Pinheiro
>> UTSA Library
>> http://lib.utsa.edu
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