Evolving Programmable Search Engine
Programmable Search Engine helps hundreds of partners – from academic institutions to retail websites – serve their users’ search needs on their sites.
Looking forward, we’ll be evolving our offerings to provide more focused and capable solutions for every use case. This evolution is designed to ensure a high-quality experience for users and partners.
A clearer path for every search need
We're simplifying and modernizing our offerings so you can choose the best tool for your goals.
For site-specific search: The Programmable Search Element (the “Search Element”) is being simplified to be the best tool for creating rich, focused search experiences on your own websites. This solution is intended for website owners who cater focused content to a specific audience.
For enterprise-grade needs: For advanced features like AI-powered conversational search and enterprise-grade grounding, we continue to offer Google Vertex AI Search as a solution.
For full web search needs: We understand some partners have use cases that require querying beyond a designated subset of domains. Our full web search solution is available for those requiring our entire index; please complete this form to register your interest .
Planning your transition to more powerful tools
We are excited to help you harness the full potential of these evolving solutions. As you plan for the future, here is your path forward for the transition, which can be completed any time between now and January 1, 2027.
“Sites to search” feature for users of the Search Element querying 50 or fewer domains: The Search Element remains the optimal solution for delivering highly optimized and focused results. With this free feature, you can designate a maximum number of 50 domains for site-specific searches.
“Search the entire web” option for users of the Search Element querying more than 50 domains: If your use case necessitates querying more than 50 domains or is set to “Search the entire web”, contact us to express your interest in the more advanced full web search solution and get more information about its capabilities and pricing. Your transition to an alternative solution needs to be completed by January 1, 2027.
For users of the Custom Search JSON API: Vertex AI Search is a favorable alternative for up to 50 domains. Alternatively, if your use case necessitates full web search, contact us to express your interest in and get more information about our full web search solution. Your transition to an alternative solution needs to be completed by January 1, 2027.
To prepare for this transition, as of today, all new engines must be configured to use the “Sites to search” feature. This change impacts only new engines; existing engines are not affected and can continue to use the “Search the entire web” option until January 1, 2027.
This evolution will help us create more focused products, so we can provide a better search experience for our developer partners. We’re excited to build the future of search with you.
Thank you,
The Google Programmable Search Engine Team
We’re pleased to announce that we have added support for the following 32 languages: Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Burmese, Estonian, French (CA), Georgian, Gujarati, Icelandic, Kannada, Kazakh, Khmer, Kyrgyz, Lao, Macedonian, Malay, Malayalam, Mongolian, Marathi, Nepali, Persian, Punjabi, Serbian (Latin), Sinhala, Swahili, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, and Uzbek.
Engine owners can now select one of these languages for their search engine in the Control Panel by navigating to Overview > Look and Feel > Language.
The Custom Search Site Restricted JSON API endpoints will cease serving traffic on January 8, 2025.
Beginning on January 8, 2025, all Custom Search Site Restricted JSON API customers must begin their transition to Google Cloud's Vertex AI Search to maintain access to their site search functionality.
This year, Google Cloud has released a number of new AI products, and we are constantly working to improve our existing products with new AI features. We believe that our Custom Search Site Restricted JSON API customers will be better served by the new Vertex AI Search product, which offers a number of advanced features, including:
Advanced site search: Improved latency and domain coverage
Gen AI features: Summarization and multi-turn queries
Reverse Image search
Vertex AI integration via Vertex extension platform
Finally, we believe that the new Vertex AI Search solution will generally be more cost-effective and offer better value for our customers.
We have made the transition to Vertex AI Search as easy as possible for our partners by providing detailed transition guidance. We are here to support you through the process.
We appreciate your understanding and cooperation. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
We’re excited to share news of a new product our partners over at Google Cloud just announced, Vertex AI Search! If you use the Custom Search Site Restricted JSON API we believe this product is likely a good fit for you.
Vertex AI Search allows you to set up and deploy a Google-grade site search engine in minutes at a competitive price. In addition to the basic search experience, Vertex AI Search provides an advanced option, which includes:
Because we believe Vertex AI Search best serves the needs of site restricted search use cases, we are no longer receiving new customers for the Custom Search Site Restricted JSON API. This has no effect on existing customers.
If you are interested in moving from the Custom Search Site Restricted JSON API to Vertex AI Search, you can find transition guidance here.
Last July, we introduced the new Programmable Search Engine control panel. While we continued to provide the option to use the legacy control panel, we’re glad to see that the vast majority of customers have found value in the new control panel and made the switch permanently. During this time, we’ve worked diligently to respond to feedback and ensure the new control panel has all the features customers need and expect from Programmable Search Engine.
Today, we’re confident that the new control panel is more user-friendly and intuitive, making it easier than ever to create and manage your search engines. Therefore, the legacy control panel will be retired on June 21, 2023 and all remaining traffic will be redirected to the new control panel.
We’re confident you’ll like the new control panel as much as we do. As always, your feedback is welcome and encouraged as we continue to improve Programmable Search Engine.
As the search space continues to evolve, we want to make sure that Programmable Search Engine continues to evolve to meet the needs of your users. We’ve decided to remove the Popular Queries JavaScript API (https://cse.google.com/api/<Search Engine ID>/popularqueryjs). Starting on November 11, 2022, this feature will no longer be available.
If you’ve been showing Popular Queries on your website, we’re glad to let you know that the Stats tab of the Statistics and Logs page in the Control Panel still shows popular queries for your Programmable Search Engine. We know this may be disruptive, so if you have questions or need assistance, please check out the Help Center or reach out to us on the Community Forums.
While the current control panel has served our customers well over the years, the time has come for a refresh. Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of the new Programmable Search Engine control panel!
