The Search with Srchr Badge

The badge is part of what makes Srchr what we call a “search aggregator” (and the first one, if not the only one we know of.)  Meta-search is part of the story…but not the whole story.  How is search aggregation different?  The key is in the way we give content publishers and search engines a voice, and that voice is the Srchr Badge.

How does it work?  Simple…just like an RSS badge.  By clicking on the Srchr badge, you can add a search engine to your Srchr home page.  Have you ever been to a news site, or blog that had great content, but then never went back?  Maybe you signed up for their RSS feed but then got pummeled with tons of mediocre content so you canned it.  Have you ever come across an niche auction site, but then forgot about it (and you just keep using Ebay anyway)?  This is where the Srchr badge comes in…it gives content providers a voice.

Why is this important?  A few years ago, publishers were incredulous at the concept of RSS.  Why disperse content without getting the benefit of eyeballs, they thought.  Now it’s everywhere, and we think the same thing will happen with search.  Furthermore, as bloggers gain a deeper archive of material from years of postings, search becomes even more important to their ability to keep their readers happy.  For content providers and services it levels the playing field…what if Yahoo auctions could get a piece of Ebay’s search traffic?  With Srchr, it could have.

How do you get your own Srchr badge?  The easiest way is to type your domain in the “Search this site too” box near the top left of the screen.  If your site is OpenSearch ready, we will auto-detect it and use it…if not, you’re stuck with a site-specific Google search.  If you then hit the “Srch” button, a new Srch-able will appear on your screen for that domain.  Click the “Edit” link on the bar for that module and you’ll see the text box you can copy the code for.

Here are a few examples from our favorite sites, blogs, and services:

Techcrunch:

Read/WriteWeb:

NextTag:

The New York Times:

Competition

There are other sites out there which do similar things to SRCHR: tagjag.com for example, or rollyo.com, or nowsy.com, and I just found out about the Yahoo search builder. Similar, but fundamentally different than SRCHR.