Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Google Custom Search VS Apache Lucene

Compare Google Custom Search VS Apache Lucene and see what are their differences

Google Custom Search logo Google Custom Search

Google Custom Search enables you to create a search engine for your website, your blog, or a collection of websites.

Apache Lucene logo Apache Lucene

High-performance, full-featured text search engine library written entirely in Java.
  • Google Custom Search Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-10
  • Apache Lucene Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-20

Google Custom Search features and specs

  • Ease of Integration
    Google Custom Search is straightforward to integrate into websites and applications, offering a user-friendly setup process with comprehensive documentation and support.
  • Advanced Search Capabilities
    It leverages Google's powerful search algorithms, providing fast, accurate, and relevant search results, benefiting from features like synonyms and advanced language understanding.
  • Customization Options
    Users can customize the search experience to match their website's look and feel, including adjusting the search box, results display, and controlling which sites are indexed.
  • Cost-Effective
    Offers a free tier with sufficient features for small to medium websites and relatively affordable paid plans for larger sites and custom needs.
  • Monetization via AdSense
    Integrates with Google AdSense, allowing website owners to generate revenue through ads displayed alongside search results.
  • Automatic Updates
    Automatically updates search indices, ensuring that the search results are always current without requiring manual input or intervention.

Possible disadvantages of Google Custom Search

  • Ad Inclusions in Free Tier
    The free version of Google Custom Search includes ads in the search results, which might be undesirable for some websites or users.
  • Limited Customization in Free Version
    The free tier has limited customization options compared to the paid versions, which might restrict certain advanced features or modifications.
  • Dependency on Google’s Ecosystem
    Relying on Google Custom Search means relying on Google’s ecosystem, which could be a risk if there are future policy changes or if the service is discontinued.
  • Data Privacy Concerns
    Some organizations might have concerns about data privacy and control, as the search data is processed and stored by Google.
  • Keyword Restrictions
    Certain keywords and search terms might be restricted or censored, limiting the scope of searchable content based on Google's policies.
  • Cost for Advanced Features
    Access to advanced features and higher query limits requires a paid subscription, which could be a significant expense for large-scale or heavily trafficked websites.

Apache Lucene features and specs

  • High Performance
    Lucene is known for its high-performance indexing and searching capabilities, which makes it suitable for handling large volumes of data efficiently.
  • Scalability
    Lucene can scale effectively to handle large datasets and accommodate growing data needs without significant performance degradation.
  • Flexible Querying
    It offers a rich query language and supports complex queries, allowing developers to perform precise and advanced searches.
  • Open Source
    Being open-source, Lucene is free to use and has a supportive community, which enhances its features through contributions and plugins.
  • Extensive Ecosystem
    Lucene is part of a larger ecosystem with tools like Apache Solr and Elasticsearch, which provide additional functionalities and easier management.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Lucene

  • Complexity
    Lucene can be complex to set up and configure, requiring a good understanding of indexing and search concepts.
  • Limited Out-of-the-box Features
    Lucene is a low-level library and lacks some of the out-of-the-box features found in higher-level search platforms, necessitating more custom development.
  • Steeper Learning Curve
    Developers need to invest time to understand its API and functionalities fully, which can be challenging for beginners.
  • Java Dependency
    As a Java-based library, Lucene requires a Java environment, which might not suit all development stacks or teams preferring other languages.
  • No Built-in Distributed Features
    Lucene itself does not handle distributed search and indexing natively, requiring integration with other tools like Solr or Elasticsearch for distributed capabilities.

Google Custom Search videos

Create a Google Custom Search Engine To Monetize Your Site

Apache Lucene videos

Paper Review - "Apache Lucene 4." SIGIR 2012 workshop on open source information retrieval

More videos:

  • Review - Fundamentals of Information Retrieval, Illustration with Apache Lucene

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Google Custom Search and Apache Lucene)
Custom Search Engine
67 67%
33% 33
Search Engine
72 72%
28% 28
Custom Search
68 68%
32% 32
Search API
57 57%
43% 43

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Google Custom Search and Apache Lucene

Google Custom Search Reviews

We have no reviews of Google Custom Search yet.
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Apache Lucene Reviews

5 Open-Source Search Engines For your Website
Apache Lucene is a free and open-source search engine software library, originally written completely in Java. It is supported by the Apache Software Foundation and is released under the Apache Software License. It is a technology suitable for nearly any application that requires full-text search, especially cross-platform.
Source: vishnuch.tech

Social recommendations and mentions

Apache Lucene might be a bit more popular than Google Custom Search. We know about 7 links to it since March 2021 and only 7 links to Google Custom Search. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Google Custom Search mentions (7)

  • Creating your own federated microblog
    Google offers Programmable Search Engine [0], a service where you can create site-specific search box. That's probably good enough for most small personal websites. [0] https://developers.google.com/custom-search/. - Source: Hacker News / 30 days ago
  • Is there a way to search keywords faster?
    Google's programmable search engine comes to mind: https://developers.google.com/custom-search/. Source: over 2 years ago
  • How important are Google search operators/ Google dorks compared to other tools?
    Dorking is not only a very useful technique to find not-indexed results and unvoluntarly exposed content, it it also helps to improve beginner's analyst mindset. You can take it as an introduction to basic query language. What I can strongly suggest is to test your skills by creating your own google custom search engine (https://developers.google.com/custom-search/) that will faciltate your onlime search by... Source: over 2 years ago
  • Brave Search passes 2.5B queries in its first year
    It looks like is targeted towards website owners and not the general public. https://developers.google.com/custom-search. - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago
  • Google-clone - Google Search Clone Built Using React/Next js And Tailwind CSS
    A functional replica of Google's search page, you can use it for searches. Styled with Tailwind CSS to Rapidly build and look as close as possible to current google search page, the search results are pulled using Googles Programmable Search Engine and it was build using Next.js the react framework. - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
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Apache Lucene mentions (7)

  • Looking for small libraries implemented in multiple langauges
    I have to find a few examples of relatively small programming libraries that has been rewritten/ported to C++, C# and Java. Example: Lucene (it isn't that small, but still shows what I'm looking for). Source: over 2 years ago
  • HBO Max needs to stop purging its content.
    He is talking about impacting the search algorithm. Putting a “+” sounds like it is negatively impacting search quality. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Whoever worked on Steam's search engine needs a raise.
    For example Lucene is a core project common to many search engines, lots of things built ontop of it. And there are similar libraries Https://lucene.apache.org/core/. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Prometheus vs Elasticsearch stack - Key concepts, features, and differences
    Full-text search Elasticsearch is built on top of Apache Lucene, an open-source information retrieval software. Apache Lucene enables Elasticsearch can perform complex full-text searches using a single or combination of word phrases against its No SQL database. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • A simple but efficient algorithm for searching a large dataset of objects?
    If I had control of the back end I would implement a full-text engine such as Lucene. Generate the lookup table as a batch job and then perform the FTS when the request comes in. If you try to do this real-time, your search will take exponentially longer the larger the data set gets. Source: about 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Google Custom Search and Apache Lucene, you can also consider the following products

Algolia - Algolia's Search API makes it easy to deliver a great search experience in your apps & websites. Algolia Search provides hosted full-text, numerical, faceted and geolocalized search.

ElasticSearch - Elasticsearch is an open source, distributed, RESTful search engine.

Site Search 360 - Site Search 360 enhances and improves your built-in CMS or product search with autocompletion, semantic search, filters, facets, detailed analytics, and a whole lot of customization options.

OpenSearch - OpenSearch is a community-driven, open source search and analytics suite derived from Apache 2.0 licensed Elasticsearch 7.10.2 & Kibana 7.10.2. It consists of a search engine daemon, and a visualization and user interface, OpenSearch Dashboards.

Sooqr - Sooqr Search provides relevant and innovative site search engine for the website.

Google Cloud Search - Search across all your company's content in G Suite.