A new Google search function that lets users search deep within a site without having to leave the Google results page has prompted something of a backlash from publishers and retailers, according to a report in The New York Times.

Early this month, Google rolled out its new search-within-search function. Users who entered the query "Best Buy," for example, got the usual results along with a secondary search box that allows for a search of the retailer's website. The problem, according to some publishers and retailers, is that a query entered into the second box routes users to yet another Google page that contains ads from competitors.

After an initial query for "Best Buy," a secondary search for "laptops" yielded natural results all found on the retailer's site as well as paid results for a slew of competitors.

While the new tool certainly makes life easier for users, who are frequently confronted by sites that lack any universal standards for organization, Google's efforts to monetize the secondary search goes too far, according to some.

"Google is showing a level of aggressiveness with this that's just not needed," Alan Rimm-Kaufman, a former executive with electronics retailer Crutchfield, told the Times. According to Rimm-Kaufman, Google's decision to sell ads on the secondary search page ignores the user's initial interest in a brand retailer like Best Buy.

For its part, Google insists that the secondary search function will benefit publishers. However, a spokesman for Google did tell the Times that the company has honored the requests of a few sites to discontinue the service.

Amazon.com, which had initially been identified as one of the first retailers to use the service, is apparently one of the companies that have backed off secondary search. A query for "Amazon" used to return a secondary search box, but not anymore. 

Blogger Ann Smarty, of SEOSmarty, pointed out that Google may simply be taking its new tool too far.

"It's not that the search-within-search hasn't got great uses, but I would guess instead of switching the feature off, a set of guidelines on how it works… would be useful," Smarty wrote. "Ultimately it's wrong to show competing PPC on search results on a brand name. If that would be switched off, then we see less of a battle by brands on accepting it."

The backlash comes less than a week after Google drew heat at a Search Engine Strategies panel, where John Battelle, CEO of Federated Media, blasted Google for playing favorites with respect to its in-house products.