Google Search Appliance Implementation and Questions

Hi Experts,

I'm working on a search database project, with over 5,000 database entries. I'm considering using Google Search Appliance, because of the fact that you can connect your database directly to the search appliance, saving processing time on your server. I'm not too sure yet, as I thought I would raise this questions with you experts first.

Because I have over 5,000 database entries, I don't want to develop my own search box because of the server processing time, etc. The database is increasing slowly, and thought it would be best now and for the future to buy this Google Search Appliance. Also I'm aware that you can filter results, which would be benefitical as I have some entries that I don't want to display.

My questions are:

Is there any step-by-step guides to implement Google Search Appliance?
Can you customise the search page, so that it looks like it's part of your web application?
Google Site Search - could I connect this to my database directly, like the Google Search Appliance?
Are there any other tools out there, like Google Search Appliance, or any other search tools that I can use?
I want to be able to connect the suggestion tool with this Google Search Appliance, is this possible, any resources about how to do this?


Thank you in advance for all the help

Regards