Those of you who are familiar with Rollyo will know that it is a convenient and charming search tool that has been around for almost a year now. Recently, some new tools have been added that make Rollyo interesting for all you searchers out there.

What is Rollyo
Rollyo is a service that lets you make your own customized search engines called search rolls. The search rolls can be accessed from the Rollyo home page, or you can cut and paste code that will display the search box on your web page or blog.

If you click Explore in the top menu, you can find and use all kinds of search rolls, some of them made by top experts in their field.

Customize Rollyo
Now you can edit any of these search rolls to make them your own by clicking Edit Searchrolls on the main page. You rename it and add or subtract sites to search. You can also choose a category for your new search engine and you can tag it so that others will know what it’s about.

The searchrolls you have access to editing are the ones you have chosen for your own search page. Customizing the search page is done using the new Dashboard, which you access from the top menu. Here you can add a wide variety of custom made searchrolls.

You can add other people’s searchrolls to your search page by clicking Explore in the menu and search for search rolls that meet your need. When each searchroll is displayed, you can choose to edit it or add it to your search page.

Cool tools
Rollyo have used their existing technology to make a really convenient new tool – the RollBar. This is a bookmarklet available from the Tools menu that will let you search any site you visit. All you have to do is drag it to your bookmark bar.

The RollBar also lets you add a site to any of your search rolls on the fly, or you can make a searchroll based on a site you like. Here at Pandia we test a lot of toolbars and bookmarklets and this one is a definite classic.

If you use the Firefox browser you now have the option of adding search rolls to the Firefox search box. When you click Firefox Search in the Tools section your selected search rolls are displayed. All you have to do is click on the ones you would like to have available in Firefox. We love the Firefox search box and this is a nice addition.

See also our article on the alternatives Yahoo! Search Builder and Eurexter’s Swicki.

You might also want to check out some search rolls that Pandia’s Susanne Koch has made:
Search engine news for the latest from the SE scene.
Wiki engines with all you ever wanted to know about wiki software.
Teaching with blogs about using blogging in education.
E-learning R&D to search a plethora of online journals on educational technology.