If you enter a term in the Google Sites search box, you can search across all the site's content and attachments. In addition, Google Sites offers multiple search options:
- Search across multiple sites (not just the current site). For example, a team site might configure the search box to search its own site as well as related team sites to increase the relevant content searched.
- Search across the entire domain. An intranet site might change the search box to search across all sites in the domain.
- Search using a Custom Search Engine. A wiki site, for instance, might offer an option for a particular topic to search using a Custom Search Engine which includes third- party sites on the same topic.
- Search using a Google Search Appliance. For example, an intranet site might power the search box with a Google Search Appliance which also crawls additional applications behind the firewall.
* To configure this, just copy and paste the URL from a results page from your Google Search Appliance; Google Sites will extract the necessary configuration options from the URL.
If there is just one provider enabled, the site displays the search button only. If there are multiple providers, a drop-down list appears, so people who visit your site can select what type of search they want to do.
To enable search options for your site, follow these steps:
- From the More actions menu, select Manage site.
- Click Site layout, then click the Configure search button.
- Select Advanced.
- Click Add provider, select a provider from the dropdown menu, and specify a name.
* To search across multiple sites, select each site from the Sites to include dropdown menu, and click Add site.
* To use a Google Custom Search or Google Search Appliance, provide the URL of a search result page. Since the search term is replaced, you may simply search for "test" within your search appliance or custom search engine and use the resulting URL, resembling: https://mysearch.mydomain.com/search?q=test - Click OK to add the search provider.
- If you want to make your new search provider the default search, follow these steps:
- Navigate to the General tab.
- From the By Default Search dropdown menu, select your new search provider.
- If you want to make your new search provider the default search, follow these steps:
- Click OK, then click Save Changes to save the search settings for the site.
- Click Return To Site to test the search box.