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1. Who is eligible for the University Program?
Any accredited university or educational institution, or any organization at an accredited educational institution worldwide, is eligible for Google's Free University program. Google reserves the right to discontinue search service to any applicant that is not an accredited educational institution. Multiple departments and organizations within the same university can sign up for Google's University Program.
2. Is the program really free?
Yes, this is a free program.
3. What is the difference between the SiteSearch and WebSearch service?
Google's WebSearch service searches the Internet to return the best search results for a specific query. Google's SiteSearch service searches only the specific domain(s) that you listed. (An example of a domain is Stanford.edu). You can give your users the option to toggle between these different search options. The option for SiteSearch only or WebSearch and SiteSearch is on the "Search Customizations page" which is the second screen in the process. It is a checkbox below the output language option.
4. Can I add University SiteSearch without having WebSearch on my site?
Yes. Our University program offers just the option of searching your University website. The option for SiteSearch only or WebSearch and SiteSearch is on the "Search Customizations page" which is the second screen in the set-up process. To have SiteSearch only, uncheck the box that is title "Optional WebSearch & SiteSearch".
5. Can Google Search a directory or just a domain? For example, can Google search http://www.university.edu/department or just http://www.university.edu?
Google's University program is optimized to search hosts and domains on the web. For example, Google's University Search can search over domains like www.university.edu or www.medschool.myuniversity.com by simply entering the domain in the "University domain to be searched" field.
Our University Search program is not optimized for searching at the directory level (for example, www.myuniversity.edu/directory). However, due to the many requests from universities to search at the directory level, we have come up with an interim solution until we can build in this additional functionality. We recommend that when you sign up, you list the domain without the directory in the "University domain to be searched" field (e.g. university.edu) on the first screen. Go through the full sign up process until you get the code to put on your website. Then, to search your directory for the host www.myuniversity.edu, add the following input type to the Google search:
<input type=hidden name=hq value="inurl:www.youruniversity.edu/yourdirectory">
6. Can I search a specific part of our university site?
Yes. When you sign up for the service, you can place the specific part of the site you would like searched in the "University Domain to be searched" field provided that you are listing a domain, not a directory. If the specific part of your site is a directory, then please see the questions/answer #5 of this FAQ. If you have already signed up for the service and are searching your entire domain, you can limit the search to a specific subdomain by modifying the domain value and the sitesearch value in the html code to the specific domain you wish searched. This html code is generated on the last screen of the sign-up process.
7. Google's SiteSearch doesn't appear to have indexed all of the pages on my site. Why?
If a page is not appearing in the results of your University SiteSearch there could be a number of reasons. First, it could be that Google has not yet crawled that page. Google refreshes its index frequently (approximately every 30 days), however it may not have reached that page. Second, the page may have frames, flash pages or store information in a database. This makes it difficult or impossible for the Google crawler to visit and index the information on that page. Also if the page was protected by robot.txt or required authentication, then Google could not access the page.
8. How does Google's University SiteSearch work?
Google's University SiteSearch restricts Google's large one billion and growing web page index to just the domain you specified. Google then searches for your query term over those restricted pages. Because Google indexes its main site once a month, and the University SiteSearch is a subset of the main crawl, the university pages will be updated once a month. Any pages that are accessible on Google.com will be accessible for Google's University SiteSearch.
9. What is the frequency of the crawl?
Google will refresh its entire index approximately every 30 days. If you need index refreshes more frequently, please read about our Custom SiteSearch service or contact us for more information.
10. Can I have Google crawl my site more frequently?
Not with the University Program. Google's Custom SiteSearch program offers its users more frequent index updates. However, Google's Custom program is not free; pricing is based on the number of web pages and the frequency of crawl needed. For a price estimate, contact us for more information.
11. Does Google guarantee full coverage of my site?
Google does not guarantee full coverage of your site, but our University SiteSearch has very good coverage of most university sites. If you need guaranteed coverage of your site, please read about our Custom SiteSearch service or send contact us for more information.
On the search results pages, Google may show a text link that refers back to its site. Some examples of the text links may be "Jobs at Google" which would link to the Google jobs page or "Try Google's Directory" which would link the to Google's directory page. Google will not show banner ads or other kinds of advertising on the search results pages.
13. Will Google serve advertising on the results pages?
No, Google will show no banner ads or other kinds of paid advertising on the search results pages. However, Google may show a text link. Some examples of the text links may be: "Jobs at Google" which would link to the Google jobs page or "Try Google's Directory" which would link the to Google's directory page.
14. What will the url be for the search results?
The url for search results will be formatted in this manner: http://www.google.com/u/youruniversity?q=querygoeshere. The university name in the URL is done on a first come basis. Every educational organization and institution will have a unique URL with the university name/nickname they select. If the name you desire is already taken, you will receive an error message saying that name is already taken. In the case of a url dispute, Google reserves the right to change the customizable part of the url (the part of the the http://www.google.com/u/).
15. How many domains can I search over?
Universities can search over one domain at a time. At this point in time, you can not search over multiple domains at the same time.
16. My site isn't launched yet. Will the SiteSearch feature work?
No. Google needs to have visited your site for your SiteSearch feature to work. Google only visits web pages that are linked to other sites on the web. Since the University SiteSearch program is subset of Google's web index, it needs to be accessible from public websites.
17. I was interrupted during the signoff process and didn't finish. When I came back and tried to sign up again, it said that my output name was already taken or that the user already exists. How do I continue where I left off?
Google already made an account for you. Please try logging in at: http://services.google.com/googleuniv/login with the email address and password that you entered the first time you logged on.
18. Will Google's SiteSearch work on our intranet?
No, Google's SiteSearch service only crawls and indexes publicly available pages on the Internet.
19. How do I customize my University Search ?
The first step of the registration is to customize your search results page. The HTML text boxes for the header and footer of your search results gives you tremendous flexibility in tailoring the look and feel of the results to your web site including navigational elements, ad serving, or any other custom needs. A preview function is provided to ensure that your customizations are accurately reflected on your search results page. If you have already registered, you can view the HTML to create your customized search box in two steps:
Your changes to the customization settings are sent to the live webservers approximately every hour (even though "preview" mode works in real-time). Please try again in an hour.
21. Why doesn't my logo appear correctly?
The most common reason a logo does not appear correctly is because the logo URL was incomplete or incorrect. First, please make sure that the URL for your logo is correct. An example of a correct URL is: http://www.google.com/images/Logo_60wht.gif.
A correct URL has the following properties:
If you are sure that your logo URL is correct but the image does not appear correctly on the Google search results, it is possible that your web service provider is refusing to serve the image when it is placed on other web pages. This is typically the case for "free" web servers that make money by placing advertisements on your web pages. If this is happening to you, the only solution may be to move your image to another server.
22. How can I include a left-hand or right-hand side navigation bar in the results page?
The first step of the University registration provides you with two text boxes for header and footer HTML which you can edit to customize your results pages. You can use these header and footer text boxes to wrap the search results in a table. Once you do that, simply insert the navigation bar or any other navigation element in the first cell of the table.
23. How can I make the search results appear in a new window?
To make the search results appear in a new window, you must add a TARGET field to the HTML which creates the search box. There are two places to add the TARGET field:
Here is example HTML which has been edited to include the TARGET fields:
24. When using frames, how do I set the target of the search results?
The TARGET field is set in two places. See Question 7 to see where to set the TARGET fields. The value of the TARGET field can be the name of any other frame or window, or one of these special names:
_blank
The results are loaded in a new, unnamed window._parent
The results are loaded into the parent of the current frame._top
The results are loaded into the full window (canceling all other frames).
25. Who hosts the search pages?
The search box itself will reside on the your web site The search results page will be served by Google with the customized look and feel as specified by you.
26. How do I create a link back to my web page from the search results page?
The first step of the University registration provides you with two text boxes for header and footer HTML which you can edit to customize your results pages. You can use these header and footer text boxes to insert a link to your homepage or any other navigational elements.
27. Can I make changes to the terms and conditions in the Service Agreement?
The terms and conditions of the Service Agreement are non-negotiable.28. I just entered the wrong address. How can I go back and change it?
You can change your address at any time by logging on to your account at http://services.google.com/googleuniv/login with your your email address and password. Once you have been authenticated, please choose "Update Registration Information" from your account information page. You can also update your customizations and access your traffic reports from here by logging into your account and clicking on "Update Customizations" or "View Reports."
29. I would like to change my customizations? How do I do this?
You can change your customizations at any time by logging on to your account at http://services.google.com/googleuniv/login with your email and password. Once you have been authenticated, please choose "Update Customizations" choice to begin making customization changes.
30. How do I access traffic reports?
Log into your account at http://services.google.com/googleuniv/login with your email and password. Once you have been authenticated, please choose "View Reports."
