Query autocompletion has been the most popular feature in the history of Custom Search. Users love it, and websites use it to help people find alternate queries that get them to the right information faster.
Since launch, one of the most commonly requested features has been administrative control over the autocompletions that surface when people start typing their queries. We’re happy to announce that you can now control inclusions and exclusions to autocompletions.
For example, on our sample restaurant review search engine, typing “che” triggers an autocompletion for “cheese” and not “cheese jalapeno poppers“, one of our tasty snacks. Typing “chicken” did uncover “chicken livers” (ugh!) but did not propose “chicken tandoori”, an interesting menu item that we’d like to promote to our users.
With the new inclusion and exclusion options in the control panel, managing autocompletions is a breeze: we just added “cheese” and “chicken livers” to the list of exclusions, and inserted “chicken tandoori” and “cheese jalapeno poppers” into the included autocompletion list.
A few hours of processing, and the new autocomplete modifications kick in.
We hope you enjoy the new controls that further enhance autocompletions on your search engine. You can even upload included and excluded autocompletions in bulk in the control panel. Let us know if you have any feedback, and enjoy your spicy cheese poppers!