How To Set Up a Google 'Federated Search' For Membership/Association-based NPOs

Morgan Sully — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:13:43 +0000

For fun, I created a 'federated search' for personal use at my org.

It was easy as pie to set up in under 5 minutes:

Get csv/xls spreadsheet of URLs you want to search (in my case a list of NAMAC's Member Orgs)
Set up Google Custom Search: http://www.google.com/coop/cse/ and login
Paste your orgs in the 'list of URLs to search'
Save the URL to go to to perform the search or grab the generated code to paste anywhere you like.

Easy. I use it to monitor/search what our Member Orgs are writing as well as as look for specific resources WITHIN the NAMAC network -

3 Ways to Use It:

Search for 'funding partners' to see where money is coming from/going from funders + what kinds of projected competitors/members and 'frenemies' are getting funded
Search for 'directory' to see if more info can be aggregated/mashed up;)
Um... I'm not sure yet, but maybe you've got an idea or two?

Digital Arts Service Corps - information management