For a free search engine, I've previously used Atomz. I've been extremely happy with Atomz, and I still use them, it's just that they've changed their services. Now, if you add a new Atomz account, you won't be able to customize the relevance of potential hits. For the sake of internet-wide search engines (like Google etc) I have quite a lot of thematic meta tags, which I don't want to generate hits in my own search engine. With my old Atomz account, I can just configure the search engine, but not so with the new Atomz account, for my new web site. Obviously, if I upgrade I can do it - but the charge is pretty heavy compared to free.
My question, therefore, is if anyone knows of an alternative to Atomz? That is, a highly customizable ad-free FREE search engine. (Sounds too good to be true, but so was the old Atomz.)

Thanks
Anders

Ad-free is difficult to find BUT...

My cousins and I use picosearch.com for our gaming site disc13.com (Pico doesn't require ads, only a small Picosearch button on the search results).

You might also want to look at freefind.com. But my vote is with Pico even though it can only search 1500 pages.

Thanks, skysenshi!
I have now added PicoSearch to my site. It seems to be okay. I really like that you can display your hyperlinked icon on top of the search results. On the downside, it is very much slower than Atomz (about 3 times as slow). Interestingly, Pico doesn't index meta tags by default.
Cheers
Anders

These guys are good and fast.

Searchhippo (http://www.searchhippo.com)

Can do a lot more than just site searches too, results are very customiseable too.

This morning (GMT+1), I wake up to find in my email inbox a message telling me that I have received a complementary upgrade from Atomz. I can now customize the search engine just like I used to with my original Atomz account. I had complained to Atomz about not being able to override the meta tags - and I receive a response within 24h - on a Sunday (PST). And that's on a free account! Man, I LOVE that company!
Anders