
Show HN: Google Blade – discover, create, and share custom search engines - hornbaker
https://googleblade.com/
======
ahm786
The domain made me think that this is an official project by Google. And
you're using Google's logo. This could be a trademark infringement.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
If this site gets attention of a Googler who cares, it will almost certainly
be sent a C&D. I'd recommend the author rename/rebrand. Generally names
"Google ____" or "Android ____" are forbidden, but "____ for Google" or "____
for Android" are generally okay with Google's trademark policies.

EDIT: I hit my HN rate limit for the morning, so my response to your comment
below follows:

AppleInsider is extremely unlikely to be confused with an Apple website,
however. Particularly since it's style is very different, and a "news and
rumors" site about Apple isn't likely to be confused for an Apple site. (And
as a sidebar, even if Apple did want to C&D them, they'd have a much harder
time C&Ding a journalistic presence.)

In the case of yours, I had to check the copyright fine print to determine it
was not a Google website.

Even changing the logo and site design from the standard Google corporate
style would help.

~~~
hornbaker
I understand that risk, and will comply with Google's wishes. As the project
is completely focused on Google's CSE, and serves only to draw attention to
them, I do hope they give me a pass. Technically, it's not unheard of... for
example, AppleInsider.com is not an Apple property.

~~~
mmanfrin
It's not about whether they like the trademark infringer or not, it's about
the substantive infringement of their trademark and the fact that defense of
the trademark is necessary for it to be legally viable.

What you've done is the equivalent of saying "DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THIS
VIDEO" on a youtube video of a tv show. Just because you're saying you don't
own it and your intentions (may be/are) good does not mean the holder of the
trademark or copyright will just say 'oh he seems nice, let him keep it up'.

~~~
hornbaker
Relevant: [http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/24/11111000/google-
says-9to5g...](http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/24/11111000/google-
says-9to5google-is-violating-trademark)

(note the update)

~~~
danso
That is not a particularly relevant story. The use of a trademark can be
justified under fair use in the context of news reporting and commentary, e.g.
"macrumors.com" or "applesucks.com", but even that is not cut-and-dry:
[http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/using-trademarks-
others](http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/using-trademarks-others)

You have a much more difficult defense in that you've produced something that
does what the layperson associates Google with: search. Even worse, you are
using Google's name and logo. It's been awhile since I've read through
Google's TOS, but generally, TOS are very explicit about not using their
trademark name or logo in such a way that implies endorsement.

~~~
hornbaker
You make good points, and I appreciate your point of view.

------
danso
This is definitely a trademark infringement. Don't wait for the C&D, just
change it so your name is not publicly (and forever) attached to a legal
dispute.

It's a cool project, but using Google's name to add prestige and an implicit
endorsement is not something that Google can easily abide.

~~~
hornbaker
I'll happily change the name if Google asks me to, no C&D necessary.

But I don't think the law (or large company reaction) is cut and dried in
cases like this. See 9to5Google, AppleInsider, etc.

GoogleBlade.com is a tribute site, featuring only an existing product of
Google (CSEs), and trying to make them better and more discoverable.

Here is the default url of a Google CSE:

[https://cse.google.com/cse/publicurl?cx=01056188319074391687...](https://cse.google.com/cse/publicurl?cx=010561883190743916877:qa_v6ioerxo)

and here is a Google Blade:

[https://linkedin.googleblade.com](https://linkedin.googleblade.com)

Google has paid so little love to this product that CSEs are still displaying
their old logo in the search box, and there is no central hub where you can
discover great CSEs.

I was thrilled when Google released CSEs back in 2006, and I've used them ever
since. I hate to see them neglected and hard to discover, though, and most
people I talk to have never heard about them.

Google Blade is my attempt to shine some light, and love, on them. If Google
wants any changes made, I'll comply asap.

~~~
tomnipotent
Trademark infringement goes like this: "Would a reasonable person believe
GoogleBlade.com was an official Google property or service?"

If the answer is yes, you're infringing. It doesn't matter how great your
service is, where your heart is, or whether other businesses use the name as
well. What matters is that you're 1) using the Google name, 2) the Google
logo, and 3) a Google inspired aesthetic which combine to create an ambiguous
and potentially confusing customer experience.

No one visiting 9to5Google is going to confuse it for a Google property, same
for AppleInsider. They are distinctly NOT official properties, and no
reasonable person would thus be confused.

The primary concern is that a random visitor might have a horrible experience
on your site, and confuse that experience for something provided by Google.

------
timb07
Just in case this becomes popular, I've created
[https://googleblade.googleblade.com](https://googleblade.googleblade.com) to
search for Google Blades. :p

~~~
hornbaker
I saw that, lol. You went all Inception on it.

Although this works, too:
[https://googleblade.com/blades/search/ruby](https://googleblade.com/blades/search/ruby)

~~~
rckclmbr
looks like you need to make your engines discoverable/sitemapped though, it
doesn't seem they are indexed in google

------
nate_martin
Might be smart to remove their logo from your site. I would expect a cease and
desist if this gets popular.

~~~
loader
They'll probably also be getting a C&D for the domain itself.

------
shaunrussell
I thought this was a google product...

~~~
hornbaker
It pretty much is - it's built on Google Custom Search Engines
([https://cse.google.com](https://cse.google.com)), which have been around
since 2006 but never seen a lot of promotion from Google.

I'm trying to bring attention to them, and make them more discoverable. If
Google wants me to change the name, I will - but it's a tribute project.

~~~
packetslave
I'm not a lawyer, nor do I speak for my employer, but yeah: you should
strongly consider changing the name and branding. I like the idea and the
sentiment behind it, but I think it could be done just as easily without using
Google's IP.

------
hornbaker
Just a little side project here, something I always wanted to build because I
get tired of typing stuff like site:whatever.com and intitle:something when
doing power searches on Google. Happy to answer questions.

~~~
garysieling
Do you know how the filtering works with https in the URLs? I tried this
against my own site ([https://findlectures.com/](https://findlectures.com/)),
but I don't get results unless I take the "s" out, despite Google displaying
it that way.

~~~
hornbaker
I took a look at your Blade config... you shouldn't need the http or https in
there at all. Test on google first, like this:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Afindlectures.com%2F*](https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Afindlectures.com%2F*)

You've got 70 pages indexed there, so you should see some results once you
make a search.

Update: 39 results now for searching "a" at
[https://lectures.googleblade.com/](https://lectures.googleblade.com/)

~~~
garysieling
Ah ok, thanks!

------
theartfuldodger
I've spent most of the last 10 years doing some variation of SEO or Affiliate
marketing, always happy to try new methods regardless of how white hat they
may be. Just fun to try and see various methods for the most part. For what
it's worth, Google has always been surprisingly terrible at reacting to spoof
sites and use of their trademark in domains. I am big fan of CSE, I use it as
the primary engine in over 400 sites ( paid version) and enjoy the analytics
integrations, exclusion options and often try to use it for many out of the
box filtering techniques in sites ( how about an agent locator search by zip
code using only CSE and schema)

Anyways, my first application of it was for toolbars downloads for webmasters
with CSE for custom searches just like your blades. Profit from each download
and the Adsense. It brought about 22k in a year between CPI, Adsense earnings
and some built in afflinks for hosting and domain tools plus Amazon cookies
for about 6 hours of work and marketing.

The point. The joy of CSE is that you can brand as you please, what you are
making and the exposure you just got for this concept could be a decent
passive income so there is no good reason to risk infringement and
repercussions on the Adsense side when your project could easily give you some
cash, if you don't need it, then donate it but why risk that aspect, Google
doesn't need the help for promoting the product, it powers many an internal
website's search for the paid product. Buy an alternate "bladesearch" domain
and redirect it and see if it gets any love on the merit of the search
concepts you devise.

~~~
hornbaker
Done, and thank you for sharing your experiences and insights!
[https://bladesearch.com](https://bladesearch.com)

ps. If you could share how you did your agent locator by zipcode, I'd be
really interested to hear about it. hello at above domain.

------
adamb0mb1
Is this doing a `site:` search on Google? If it's doing something more, what
is it?

Also, FWIW, the HackerNews blade doesn't return anything (I tried some pretty
basic searches on it.)

~~~
hornbaker
Tons of results for me:
[https://hn.googleblade.com/hn/ai](https://hn.googleblade.com/hn/ai)

It _can_ do something as simple as a site: search on Google, but you can
string configs together to join up 20-30 sites together, create tabs to split
out by sentiment, split out by number or dollar ranges, etc. etc. I have
barely scratched the surface with the Blades there now, hoping to see some
creative ones surface.

~~~
jklinger410
The point is that yes, all of this can be done with Google operators.

These are just links to those operators.

~~~
hornbaker
Well, yes, if you don't mind typing or pasting the same combo of 20-30
different search operators in Google.com, it can be done there.

But there are some other subtle differences: you get thumbnail images with
search results (if available) with Blades, and you don't get a captcha to
prove you're human if your search volume or rate is out of bounds on a Blade.
(These are features of CSEs, not something I've hacked.)

------
hornbaker
If you're wondering what kind of traffic #25 on the front page brings in:

[https://twitter.com/GoogleBlade/status/811681152046141441](https://twitter.com/GoogleBlade/status/811681152046141441)

About 1,000 uniques so far, 20 signups.

~~~
nedwin
I wonder if you would see a comparable result if people didn't think this was
a new product from Google.

~~~
crisopolis
I'm pretty sure it wouldn't even make it to the frontpage without using Google
as a prop.

~~~
packetslave
hence why he's doing it

------
hornbaker
Just wanted to update you guys that I took everyone's good advice, and changed
the name of this project to
[https://bladesearch.com](https://bladesearch.com).

I'm sorry for any confusion I may have caused in making you think it was a
service of Google's. I viewed it as a tribute to one of my favorite services
of theirs (custom search engines) and let that cloud my legal perspective.

Anyway, I didn't hear from Google, but also didn't want them to have to engage
their legal team, so I went ahead and rebranded today.

Lesson learned, and thanks again everyone for the great feedback yesterday.

------
jenoer
I also managed to execute JavaScript by adding <img src=x onerror=alert(1337)>
to my blade description, it seems to run on the home-page or here:
[https://ftp.googleblade.com/jenoer](https://ftp.googleblade.com/jenoer)

Edit: Unfortunately I have to go to bed, if I find anything else tomorrow I'll
drop you an e-mail.

~~~
hornbaker
Thanks! Just pushed a fix for that.

------
timb07
You're not validating the provided email address when someone signs up. And
note, there's only one 100% correct way to validate an email address:
[https://hackernoon.com/the-100-correct-way-to-validate-
email...](https://hackernoon.com/the-100-correct-way-to-validate-email-
addresses-7c4818f24643)

~~~
inopinatus
Contrary to popular belief, not even activation messages are a 100% correct
way to validate an email address. Due to the many hilarities involved in
delivering an email, they can result in both false positives and false
negatives.

Sadly there is no perfect way to validate an email address. You can either
optimise for false positives or false negatives, but perfect precision is
beyond hope.

Also note, the more validation you require, the more users you deter.

------
WhiteFoxx
Looks cool but you need to remove all the Google branding. It's misleading and
trademark infringement.

------
du_bing
Wonderful site, I discover the telegra.ph on it, it's interesting.

------
hornbaker
I like this one by PeteD - it searches 12 different bike part websites at
once:

[https://bikeparts.googleblade.com/bikeparts/brooks%20saddle](https://bikeparts.googleblade.com/bikeparts/brooks%20saddle)

------
crypto5
searchblades.io domain is not occupied ;-)

~~~
hornbaker
Thanks, might need it. :) I've got a couple others on standby, but I really
hope the big G is cool about this.

~~~
inthewoods
I highly doubt they will be - just saying.

~~~
daveguy
Not to mention all of the modified shadow logos for all the different
individual search engines. May be considered fair use, but I would expect some
individual cease and desists too.

That said, I hope everyone involved just relaxes and lets it grow! Good luck!

~~~
hornbaker
Thanks daveguy. I miss the good ol' days of the internet when stuff like this
wasn't even a concern. :/

------
jenoer
I suggest you blacklist a few more subdomain requests, for example, I took
ftp.googleblade.com, api., smtp. and could take a few others which could
disrupt future expansions on this project.

~~~
hornbaker
Thanks for the headsup, and I'm glad a friendly person took them. :)

------
jeffehobbs
Bro, you are going to get sued and you will be flattened. Change the name.

------
dom96
It looks like your edit profile page[1] allows password changes without
specifying the current password.

1 - [https://googleblade.com/edit](https://googleblade.com/edit)

