Google Custom Search, having problems understanding how to integrate it in forum....

[Jah-Hools]

I am confused as to what exact Google product I should be using..

The members of my technology based forum are constantly complaining about how the built in VB search cant find all the threads relating to items they are searching for (many have 2 and 3 character parts to their name like "BH 3157Z") and the VB search engine dislikes the 2 character searches so it doesnt work a lot of the time.. Google however finds things very well..So I want to integrate Google searching in my navbar... and have the results show up in my forum frame so as not to lose the visitors..

There are 2 million posts on the forum and its really not clear what level of product I should be buying. Also I run banner ads (these make money so I dont mind paying to make the forum searches work properly) but some Google services have the condition that the search results will not be shown on a page with NON Google ads, (so I daydream the the results could perhaps be shown on a VB forum page with no banner zone..???) I would rather not have adsence ads shown next to the search results..

Can anyone switch on the light and direct me to the right Google tool I need to purchase? Google want to know how many pages there are to be searched... So.. what would you say with 2 million posts, how many pages is that?

I don't want to waste money on some expencive enterprise package if I dont really NEED to.. And I don't want to get mis advised by a Google phone sales person who doesnt really understand what a VB forum is.

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

--------------- Added [DATE]1210692649[/DATE] at [TIME]1210692649[/TIME] ---------------

OK - surprisingly I got a very prompt call back from Google.

The woman was more on the sales side and was a bit vague on the technicality's but did a check and according to Google my forum has "307,000 pages.."

That is just 7,000 over the minimum Custom Business Edition allowance of 300,000 pages costing $2,350 (for 2 years use)

She is going to ask her boss what sort of a deal they could do as the next option up is for 1 million pages and would cost $9,000...!!!!

And will get back to me via email..

I will report back..

I wonder how they figure out the page numbers? and if there is a way I can reduce them..? (more posts per page?)

She also asked if the total page number would be 'static' and of course it wont be...

So lets see what she comes up with..

Its a lot of money to spend - but the forum members are are very unhappy about the existing search functionality..So it could be worth it in the long run. I already run ads and don't want adsence ads next to the search results, my forum members would find that cheesy and it might aggravate my existing advertisers..

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Can anyone see any problems this might cause on my forum?

I suppose I have to let Google crawl the site.. there are a few ways to let it do that..

I would probably want to hack it so the first search entry window you get is the Google Custom search..??? (seeing as it cost so much) Having paid for it - I wouldnt have to put the Google name or Logo next to the search data entry window..

Anyone got some words of advice?

Things to watch out for?

Will folks miss the old search I wonder.. (but it would still be there as an option below..)

Thanks