Mark Lucovsky's been doing more interesting hacking with the AJAX Search API, only this time it's in the context of a weblog: http://ajaxsearch.blogspot.com/

A post on the API's blog explains some of his tweaks and integrations:

• Google Search form in the sidebar does parallel searches of several indexes, as well as site-restricts
• Video Search form in the sidebar returns results (and can play them) inline
• Map Search is scoped/embedded in the sidebar, and can be augmented with searches/favorite places/etc.
• javascript: URLs can drive the any of the sidebar's Search API modules