On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 12:00 PM, Gwern Branwen <gwern0(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Further examples can be multiplied, but I hope this
shows that CSEs
can be very useful for finding online sources; I'm sure it would work
as well for other subject-areas!
(And since I can't let recent events go, I'll mar my little essay with
a final remark: *this* is the sort of thing that will lessen issues
like BLPs - not fanaticism like "Caedite eos! Novit enim Dominus qui
sunt eius".)
I withdraw my enthusiastic support of CSEs. Apparently Google will
without warning or notice arbitrarily delete all but 20 URL filters:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/customsearch/thread?tid=29757bc2983d5…
This makes CSE utterly useless for Wikipedia. The obvious workaround,
keeping a list of URLs on a subpage and having a CSE load that, will
run afoul of the Wikipedia blacklist filter.
Even if I found a workaround, I am sufficiently angry that Google
would unilaterally destroy approximately 10-20 hours of my work that I
do not think I would use CSE anyway.
The idea is still good, however. The restricted searches proved their
utility to me. But I currently don't know of any alternatives.
--
gwern