Alicia
Campbell
SLM 521
Buddy Phillips
SEARCH ENGINES
Search engines are tools used to locate a topic of concern
found on a web site somewhere on the WWW.
A search engine maintains a database of the identification and contents
of many but not all sites on the WWW. Of
the estimated 3 billion sites on the WWW, Yahoo has about 600,000, and Google
has 500,000 web sites in their databases (good article on Search Engines in the
Search engines may be general in nature, or be specific to
some special category that you want.
Categories include, but are not limited to: general, media, kid safe,
government, meta, news, legal, travel, medical,
shopping, and sports.
The first two listed below in each category are my
favorites, but the other ones listed are good, too. In all cases, just because a link is listed,
they might not always work. You have to check them before you use them or
recommend them for use.
All the referenced resources from the
I usually used one topic then asked each search engine to
give me results. I then compared the results.
I was not looking for impressive search engines. I am
looking for search engines that provide good capabilities but are easy to use.
KID
SAFE SEARCH ENGINES
Kids search engines varied immensely. Some were fun things
only. Some were curriculum only. Others were a combination of both.
I started with http://www.sldirectory.com/searchf/kidsafe.html as it listed many of the kid safe search engines and gave
me a feel for what they did. I then looked at them. Here’s what I selected:
Eduseek is a search
engine for educational sites. Categories
are divided into academic subject areas. Several layers of prompts direct you
to the specific content areas. The age range search capability is especially
useful to me.
KidsClick!
KidsClick! is a search engine for kids maintained by librarians. It has
its listings by categories, subject areas, Dewey Decimal System, as well as the
letter of the alphabet and word.
Listings provide information on illustrations, reading level, and the
subject area. Several layers of prompts direct you to the specific content
areas.
RUNNER UPS
Great Web Sites for
Kids is a search engine for kids maintained by the American Library Association
and the Library Association for Service to Children. It has its listings by
categories, subject areas, Dewey Decimal System, as well as the letter of the
alphabet and word. Listings provide
information on illustrations, reading level, and the subject area. Several
layers of prompts direct you to the specific content areas. Some links do not
always work.
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/greatwebsites/greatwebsiteskids.htm
Cool Sites For Kids
This site
“concentrates on web sites for kids from 3-12 years old. The focus is on fun
sites for "after school," not sites intended primarily for research
or homework help. These Web sites are either designed for kids, designed by
kids or have content that appeals to kids.”
This site is an alternative to the research/learning sites. It’s just
fun for the kids. http://www.cclsweb.org/MidnightFiles/Kids/kidmidnt.htm
Educators designed
this site for kids. Some links are directly to text. Most are links to sites
specific to the alphabetical list of topics.
http://www.kidskonnect.com/AlphabetizedList.html
Many more search
engines are available.
Would you believe 34
web sites from one search engine? The
other search engines had similar referenced sites. You can select a search
engine for news in general or for specific news areas, or specific topics or
articles.
I started with http://searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156261
, as it listed 34 of the news search engines and gave me a feel for what they
did. I then looked at them. It was a tough choice between Google and Yahoo.
Here’s what I selected:
Google is a general
search engine but its news search engine capabilities were outstanding. I liked it the best. It had immediate hotlinks to top stories and
main topics, search capabilities included additional topics and keywords. It had good summaries of most of the top
stories, by category. It was the fastest
to get to the top stories. It was very easy to use. Several layers of prompts
direct you to the other specific content areas.
Yahoo
Yahoo is a general
search engine but its news search capabilities were very good. I liked it next best. It had immediate hotlinks to top stories and
main topics, search capabilities included additional topics and keywords. It had good summaries of top stories, but not
as many or as extensive as Google. It was very easy to use. Several layers of
prompts direct you to the specific content areas.
I started with http:/www.search-engine-index.co.uk/Images,
it was OK, but http://www.search-22.com/images.html
was much better. However, it didn’t let
you use the hotlinks to the selected site. You had to go through them. This was
time-consuming. I just identified the sites, then went
there myself. I then looked at the
recommended sites. All were good.
Altavista was best. Here’s what I
selected:
Altavista is a
general search engine but its image search engine capabilities were very
good. It lets you select the type of
image, photo or graphic. It then
provides small images of the selection (“thumbnail”- sized) with the source of
the image. It also had links to the source or elated topics. It was the fast to use and download, even
with a dialup connection.
http://www.altavista.com/images
Google
Google is a general
search engine but its image search capabilities were just as good as their news
search engine capabilities. It was very
easy to use as it used keywords for the subject of the image search. It displayed the same size thumbnail images
as Altavista, but had no associated links, just the image source.
I started with http://www.searchengines.com/generalSearch.html
. After identifying the sites I explored
them. This site hotlinked you directly
to the site, but didn’t make you use their site to access them. Much better. Then looked at the listed
sites. All were good. Google, Altavista , and Lycos were all good Guess what I liked best?
Google
Google is a general
search engine, and is turning out to be my go-to search engine. It was very easy to use as it used keywords
for the subject of the search. The
homepage is easy to read and uncluttered.
It had no associated sponsored links when the subject search was
displayed.
Altavista
Altavista is also
general search engine. It was very easy to use as it used keywords for the
subject of the search. The homepage is
easy to read and uncluttered. It has
associated sponsored links when the subject search was displayed.
Lycos
Lycos is a general
search engine. It was very easy to use
but not near as good as the first two. It also used keywords for the subject of
the search. The homepage is easy to read
but is very cluttered with advertisements (I guess we
all have to pay our bills). It had
associated sponsored links when the subject search was displayed.
I started with http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/SearchEngines.html
for a clearer definition of what
Google
Of course, it was
Google again. Why bother going to ten
different search engines, when one can do it all well. Unfortunately this is slanted by Google’s
popularity. It means the users of its search engine bias its selections. But no one stops you from using the other
search engines to see if you get different results. It was very easy to use as it used keywords
for the subject of the search. The
homepage is easy to read and uncluttered.
It had no associated sponsored links when the subject search was
displayed.
Teoma
Teoma is also a meta search engine. It was very easy to use as it used
keywords for the subject of the search.
The homepage is easy to read and uncluttered. It has no associated sponsored links when the
subject search was displayed. It looks like Google.
AllTheWeb
AllTheWeb is another meta search engine. It was very easy to use as it used
keywords for the subject of the search. The homepage is easy to read and
uncluttered. It has associated sponsored
links when the subject search was displayed. It looks like Altavista.
Altavista
Altavista is also
general search engine. It was very easy to use as it used keywords for the
subject of the search. The homepage is
easy to read and uncluttered. It has
associated sponsored links when the subject search was displayed.