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Comment by zach | Hacker News Reader

Is there any way to monetize legitimate software search traffic to a decent search engine without cutting a special deal like this?

I have an app-launcher-like project I'm working on that could benefit from this kind of arrangement, but browser toolbar scammers seem to have scorched the earth.

Anyway, great to see this deal continue. This is a great partnership that I presume both sides would like to keep going, but the details still have to work out right.

Sort of like Pixar and Disney in the 90's. Then again, Disney didn't figure out how to make Pixar-quality movies back then, yet Google has definitely figured out how to make a world-class browser.

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No, not search engines. Merchant sites like Amazon on the other hand let you get affiliate money without having to bind a special deal.

i'm pretty sure google's custom search provides income from ads clicked through it.

https://www.google.com/cse/

Google is totally a no on this count. Their generally-available programs are all for people entering search terms into Google's own widgets and specifically exclude software sources. I asked around at I/O and the answer was basically a shrug and suggestion to "get big and call biz dev".

I fully understand why, of course — they have lots of tools and expertise for verifying the authenticity of web-based queries, but software has to monitored in a different and likely less scalable (maybe even human-driven?) way.

And Google hardly needs to pursue desktop apps' small (and, to be fair, traditionally risky) traffic source, so in turn they haven't developed the technology to make that scale better.

I still love Google search though, so I wish I could use them. Instead I have to choose between monetizing what is clearly very valuable search traffic and giving users a search experience I think is outstanding. It's really frustrating.

If anyone has any ideas how I can cut this Gordian knot, feel free to get in touch via my profile info.

Perhaps you've never had the misfortune of using one. Google's CSE is atrocious. It looks terrible and has poor functionality.

You should check with IAC/Ask.com. They have a direct feed and are the go-to provider for resyndicated Google ads.

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