Google has said that it is launching a new search service aimed at business users called Google Custom Search Business Edition.

The new service will be hosted on Google computers and be a "lite" version of its Google Appliance hardware based service, but more advanced than the current free offering available.

Starting at $100 (£49) a year compared to $2000 for Google Appliance, small businesses will be able to have Google's search on their site without the need to run Google ads.

"If you have a Web site, we already crawl your Web site", Nitin Mangtani, a product manager in Google's Enterprise division, told Reuters. "Now we are saying you don't have to manage search within your site."

Google says that the Google Custom Search Business Edition will be incredibly easy to setup and install and requires just a three-step sign-up process that takes about 10 minutes. Like its Google Analytics packages, businesses will be required to embed a bit of code on their home page.

For $100 a year, the Google service lets customers within a specific site search up to 5000 pages within a specific website. For $500, it searches 50,000 pages.