Moments ago Google For Gardeners reached a milestone. I added the 500th site to the search engine dedicated to finding gardening and plant information through Google. Thanks to all the people who have submitted recommendations for the search engine and thanks to Google for allowing people like me to create a custom search engine out of their product.
500 websites about gardening may not seem like a lot considering how many are out there but when you take into account that I had to look at each site, decide if it was valuable to a gardener and, I count up the hours I've spent doing this- my head starts to hurt.
How does it work?
Short answer is that it is a Google Custom Search Engine where the websites you get in the results are hand-picked. I started this custom search engine because when I was looking for information related to gardening I would get annoyed that the most "relevant" results were websites selling me some kind of product. What I wanted was to learn about a particular gardening subject, not buy a plant. I started to add websites, blogs, hobby sites, plant societies -you name it- as long as the purpose of the website isn't to sell products or services.
Recently, I noticed that there is a button on the homepage for Google For Gardeners that allows you to add it to your website or blog. I've spotted it on a couple of blogs and websites and I'm glad that people are finding it useful.
If you have a suggestion for a website or blog that should be included send it to me and I'll see about adding it. If you do a search on it on a particular subject or plant and don't get a result let me know and I'll look for websites to add. I may have made a mistake here or there in choosing a site to add so, if you spot a result that is just a store or pushing a product let me know and I'll see about removing it from the results. I've made exceptions here and there for a site I thought had good information but not many.
12.2.09
21 comments:
Hi!
Feel free to leave a comment. You can always use the search box for my blog or the search "Google For Gardeners" if you're looking for gardening information. If you're looking for seed saving information check out "Seed Snatcher"search engine.
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Hey, very cool! Someone set up a rose vendor custom search for us rosaholics and I often find it to be quite useful. So much easier searching for Mr. Lincoln without having to wade through pages about President Lincoln.
ReplyDeleteCould you pls tell me how do I post a comment or if me.green thumb is still answering questions on this page pls
DeleteHi Nikki, I know what you mean. As a user of common names for plants I sometimes wish I'd just learn the Latin names so I didn't have to wade through so many results. Glad to hear someone set up search for you rosaholics. I think everyone should set one up for gardening information in their city, state and or country. They're really useful.
ReplyDeleteI tried your search engine and really liked it. I was searching for info on ground cherries and found lots of stuff including GardenWeb threads. Do you mind if I mention this on my blog? I'll link back here of course.
ReplyDeleteMarnie
Roses and Lilacs, You can mention it on your blog and you don't have to link back here. It is nice of you to offer but not necessary. You can just link to the search engine itself and it is good enough for me. It doesn't "belong" to me-it is for everyone. I guess I'm just what you could consider as the editor of the search engine.
ReplyDeleteI think people would enjoy your blog and probably will want to say thanks--maybe ask a question. I have lots of new annuals to research before spring so I will probably be using it a lot.
ReplyDeleteMarnie
Thank you for making this tool. I was given six cacti for Valentine's Day and trying to do research on how to take care of them-- this will help a ton!
ReplyDeleteMr BrownThumb - wow! What a cool site. Thank you for all your hard work on it and for sharing it with us -- and the world. I bookmarked it and will also add it onto my blog - that's a great resource. Having to weed through miles of vendors is one of my pet peeves, too. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI will be checking out this site today. Thanks
ReplyDeleteThis is great-- I have the same problem with 1000 sales sites before you get to the info you actually need. Linked the google site and this post on MyFolia in the Gardening Tips group.
ReplyDeleteHey MBT, I was just trying it out - very cool! You do so much for all of us, and it's greatly appreciated, especially by the luddites among us.
ReplyDeleteHi Mr. Brown Thumb, this is fantastic. Thank you so much for doing all that legwork. We are always looking up plant info for the blog and for the gardening. Sometimes we want to buy something, but usually just want some info that is reliable.
ReplyDeleteFrances
Rats, it won't work on wordpress.com blogs.
ReplyDeleteFrances
Sounds like a great idea. I've gotta check it out ~ I had no idea you were doing this! Hope all's well with you.
ReplyDeleteThanks, MBT. What a good idea? I've added it to my igoogle page.~~Dee
ReplyDeleteI use Google for Gardeners constantly. Thank you so much for setting it up! I used to have to do my Google searches for gardening-related topics by entering my query, then typing site:.edu. But this method knocks out a lot of other good resources, forcing me to do the same thing with .org, .gov, etc. VERY time consuming, especially since my job requires me to research several gardening topics every day. It's going up on my pages!
ReplyDeleteSamantha,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback. If you come across a page you think should be added feel free to send me a message.
Pls help with my aloe vera plant the tips r turning brown and I don't know what to do there is hardly any sun that comes n my apartment so what do I do for light don't want my plants to die pls help I have aloe vera and a succolent plant and 2 exotic angel plants is there any hope
ReplyDeleteHello I just fount this page need help with my aloe vera plant and my succolent plant pls help they r week and brown on the tips if anyone can help me pls help don't want my plants to die
ReplyDeleteThanks, am a beginner blogger so haven't yet figured how to add the search engine to my blog. Will appreciate any guidance.
ReplyDeleteThanks, am a beginner blogger so haven't yet figured how to add the search engine to my blog. Will appreciate any guidance.
ReplyDelete