SELECTED BEST SEARCH ENGINES
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General Kids Search Engines

Askforkids.com
Engaging color and format greets you with ten tabs to make your selection and includes an almanac, dictionary, or encyclopedia. At the bottom of the page, the user can choose new resources or fun and games. If the search box is used, a typical list does not appear. Instead, basic facts are listed and possibly a picture. A question is listed which the user can click on for an article answer or, instead, the user can choose to look at other search engines’ finds. The news resources are mostly from magazines. A CNN link is also included which would be helpful for the latest news. This is a very attractive and useable search engine with standard library reference sources. This site states that if a site is blocked by CyberPatrol, it is blocked here as well.

ALA Great Websites for Kids
This is a site directory with sites chosen by ALA members using "rigorous evaluation guidelines". Due to this directory being from the prolific ALA, I didn’t spend a lot of time here. As the site is for children, what ALA otherwise might find appropriate, will be less likely to be contained in this search engine directory. After finding many links to magazines, etc. for children to attempt publication in, I happily left this site knowing that, by reputation, this site would have many more relevant findings and be on my tops list. The format was easy to follow as well. There are categories by subject areas. There is selection criteria for what is termed "great websites" that will help librarians. ALA greatsites’ takes suggestions for websites to be included and provides a survey for their own accountability. Links have symbols to identifying usefulness for pre-k, elementary, middle, or caregiver/teacher.

Kids Special Interest Search Engines

Kids Click!
KidsClick! was started by Ramapo Catskill Library System librarians, as a few selected databases, to guide appropriate web use for grades K-7. Later, with grant money from Library Services and Technology Act, in 1997, they received funds for a search engine and graphics developer. KidsClick! is arranged by the Dewey Decimal System and provides an interesting format for children to see their interest area and click on it or search 600 subjects by letter. Searches don’t produce as many results, but do provide relevant information when searching in the Dewey section. Using the search bar, sometimes leads to no matches. Searches did not always provide an overwhelming number of matches which, in one way, is good. Having a list of 10 relevant searches may be easier for students (and adults). When hits were large, no further categories were provided to help the user weed through. Pictures and sound can be searched too. There is a selection policy in place. The concept is unique and by familiarizing users with Dewey, will likely cause students to make generalizations to their school and public library.

First Gov for Kids
The categories are educational subjects and are further divided into government, education, and commercial sites. Links to state web pages are included. Selection and linking criteria for sites are in place prioritizing government and non-profit sites, and some related commercial sites, appropriate for ages five to thirteen with information and activities suitable for them. The sites are intended to educate, not persuade. Although there is adherence to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), this is a search engine and sites linked to are not maintained by kids.gov. There is also a prominent link to the Federal Citizen Information Center.. After inputting a search topic, a narrower topical list appears to the left of the page to link to more specific finds. The graphics are engaging on the home page and searches relevant to a students’ needs.

General Search Engines

Ask
This search engine was always one of my favorites due to finding pages with substantial information related to what I was searching for. There were human editors who assisted in this search engine in its start-up days. Now, Ask ranks by subject-specific popularity using a indexing crawler that searches for URLs. Using the HTML page there, the crawler follows hyperlinks for that URL and other URLs creating a search catalog. There are category tabs on the right and an uncluttered search box in the middle of the page. Ask does not use link popularity. Link popularity means that pages are ranked by the amount of links for a webpage. Ask uses a robot crawler to do indexing.

Beaucoup
This search engine is geared for all ages. While I was searching for a possible search engine that searched for book reviews, I found this site that gave me sites that indexed book reviews, etc. This site contains search engines and indices in soooo many categories that its usefulness is great. Some of the referenced search engines are really indexes and directories because not to include them would be a disservice to the user as it says in the frequently asked questions section. Beaucoup is run by one person who has produced an amazingly useful site and is very serious about its integrity.. This is probably the most impressive search engine considering its broad uses. Its powered by Mamma.com

Meta Search Engines

Mamma
Despite meta search engines sometimes missing relevant information in their quick searches of oh so many URLs, Mamma provided relevant listings for everything I searched. On the right hand side ideas were lists to refine the user’s search if need be. When the user clicks on news, top stories from a variety of sources can be found and so can news on business, science, etc. It appears that news is all current and not archived here. One downfall, is that when I searched for book reviews, movie reviews appeared. Hmmm.

IZito
IZito is a fast search engine and breaks down the results, found on the left of the page, in what they call clusters. The user can search the whole web or just the United States. Hits appeared relevant, but of course, would have to be weeded through due to the large amount. Information about Izito’s technology and searching is not on the site yet, but is said to be "coming soon." Preferences are easy to set and the link is right beside the search box. The user can make the search a safe one and receive up to 40 listings per page. I did not see how to make a 3 column format as suggested by searchenginewatch.com

Directory Search Engines for the Educator or Scholar

Librarian's Internet Index
Pre-selected sites are searched here at Librarians‘ Internet Index. It is publicly funded by California and Washington state. Users may suggest sites to be included, but they must have free information available. Lii states, "We have tens of thousands of entries, also maintained by our librarians, and organized into 14 main topics and nearly 300 related topics." Finds are scholarly and may include prolific names/sites and current issues and arts and science sites related to the topic. Thirty to sixty new websites are selected weekly and the user can be advised, for free, of which ones by e-mail, RSS (Blog), or at the LII directory. The newsletter is free and about 40,000 people subscribe. A tutorial called "Getting Started with RSS: A Bloglines Tutorial" is available at this directory and the user is directed to www.bloglines.com to set up their free account.

Tech-nology
There any many free items for teachers on this search engine directory for educators. Items are aimed at K-12. I saw some early childhood links and special ed links. Using the categorical tabs will mostly search the technology site for lesson plans, worksheets, and rubrics sometimes linking to other selected websites. Recreational and educational games can be found here as well. Searching in the search bar results in a list of selected websites. The only downfall is that for some advanced and specific items, the user must become a member.

Other Engines I Looked At

Awesome Library
The home page of this search engine directory is very impressive and clear with occupational categories for personalizing your search under parent, librarian, nurse, etc., but don’t let that fool you. Further categories are provided after searching and "specific results." There are a few ads to the right, but they are not intrusive. I tried searching for ‘publishing children’s writing’ and had 0 hits being advised to try fewer words. I tried ‘publishing writings’ and ‘getting published’ and no hits. ‘Publish stories’ gave me one hit. Finds were very general and may or may not relate the to the users search. The ads would likely have been more helpful to find links for student publishing. Searching for ‘Tolstoy’ brought me the same 2 categories and one match when I searched under two different occupation categories, so appears that the categories may not truly be personalized. Possibly, if I had searched this website something of relevance may have been found. Once, I received this message, "Item could not be found. It may have been deleted by another user." Searches were just too broad.

Lycos
Lycos has parental controls and jobs. Seemed impressive and honorable, but blocked by my filter?? Also, assist’s the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Education World
Too busy of a site.

Kid's Search Tools
Confusing to know which search box of so many to use.

Family Friendly Search
This site said I didn’t have permission to search.

Gimenei
Gimenei queries an undisclosed number of search engines and removes duplicates from results. Its most useful feature is an advanced search form that allows you to limit your search to a specific country.

Search Edu
Uses a WebCrawler. Searches give a listing by Google with the accompany sponsored links. A limited list of useful links are provided on the search homepage.