It’s been confirmed with Search Engine Land that Google is discontinuing support for the Google Site Search product. For those who don’t know, Google Site Search is a paid product that lets you power your internal website’s search engine based on the Google search technology. Google charges based on monthly query volume for the product.
At this point, Google is directing those customers to either the ad-powered product named free custom search engine or the new cloud search product.
Google is planning to stop supporting the Google Site Search product completely by the fourth quarter of 2017.
A Google spokesperson sent us the following statement:
We are winding down the Google Site Search product over the next year, but will provide customer and technical support through the duration of license agreements. For GSS users whose contract expires between April 1st and June 30th, 2017, we are providing a free 3-month extension with additional query volume to allow more time for them to implement the necessary changes to their site. GSS customers may also take advantage of our Custom Search Engine solution, an ads-supported model that offers similar functionality. We continue to build out new functionality and invest in new technology that make enterprise search a great experience for our customers. Just recently, we introduced the general availability of Google Cloud Search for G Suite customers.