Back in December I said that I wasn't impressed with Google's Custom Search Engine (CSE) due to the lack of statistics.  Without some sort of detailed stats tracking, I never understood how the service could be of any use to people.  One of the primary benefits of having a site search feature is the ability to see what people are searching for.  And being able to see what people are looking for can help you design site layouts, generate content, promotions, etc.

To that affect, the Google Custom Search Blog announced a new statistics page for the Google CSE that lets users see the traffic to their search engine and popular queries.  They really didn't have a lot to say about the feature.  But I'd say this ability was long overdue.

But at least one user of the Google Custom Search Engine isn't impressed.  Razvan Antonescu calls the new statistics feature a "total disappointment".  Accordoing to Antonescu's post, only queries with a certain number of results are displayed.  That could make the stats feature pointless for small sites.  In addition, it's often the queries making up the long tail that marketers and websites owners are interested in.

Let's hope this statistics service is just the first step on the road to a more complete solution.  Because I think the custom search that offers the best users stats will dominate.  Maybe it will be Google.  But it won't happen with lackluster usage reporting.