WebProNews

The beta service from Rollyo lets users assemble a group of sites into a "searchroll" and perform queries that return results from those sites.

The great thing about search engines like Yahoo and Google is how they index so much information and return results from that index based on a query. The great thing can also be a bad thing, as irrelevant results can crowd out the ones someone needs from a query.

For users who have a group of sites they frequently visit and trust, Rollyo provides a way of searching just through that group. The site uses Yahoo Search technology to enable the creation of "searchrolls," or personal search engines.

Once a user registers for an account, she can designate a number of sites for the searchroll. Queries submitted to that searchroll return results from those sites. These searchrolls, once created, can be shared with other people. Users can save those other search rolls in their profile as well as ones they create.

After getting results from a search query, users who want to see more results from Yahoo Search can expand the search to the broader index. Searchrolls can contain up to 25 sites, but Rollyo notes the best results seem to come from searchrolls with 5-15 sites.

Rollyo has gone for a bit of celebrity buzz by setting up a list of popular searchrolls that they call High Rollers. Political gadfly Arianna Huffington and search experts Gary Price and John Batelle number among Rollyo's High Rollers.

The site offers tools like a Firefox plugin, and a bookmarklet will be developed.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.