Shawn Moran

SLM 521

February 19, 2004

Search Engine

After researching various search engines, I have narrowed down a list that would be helpful for teachers, as well as educational for students. I have selected five search engine categories which are; general, meta, kid safe, news, and travel. I have selected two of my favorites search engines for each category.

General Search Engines

Google – This is probably the most well know and useful general search engines on the web. It has the largest database on the web and pages are ranked by search results. It also has set up great parameters for advanced searches.

Yahoo – Although not as popular as Google, I tend to find Yahoo easier to personalize and find news. Yahoo has a smaller database than Google. It claims to search 3 billion searchable pages compared to Google’s 8 billion. However, Yahoo has great free services such as email. I have a Yahoo email account that holds 250 MB of free memory. It also list searches in clear order of popularity, which I find helpful.

Meta Search Engines

Dogpile - This is probably the best search engine which combines top results from Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, and many more. It claims it can search 50% more of the web than a single search engine. It has a good adult filter, and you can customize the result displays.

Vivisimo Clusty – This is another great Meta search engine that uses new clustering technology. With Clusty, you can easily browse through categorized folders. It goes one step further in presenting results, making it easy to sort through a large amount of information.

Kid Safe Search Engines

Yahooligans – This is my favorite search engine for children. It makes it very easy for a child to sort through information on the web. It has a great parent and teacher guide on the home page that is very useful for classroom activities. It also has a great online safety tutorial for children. I would highly suggest this search engine for educational purposes.

Ask Jeeves for Kids - This is another great user friendly search engine for kids. The site is careful in that it only selects “G rated” site that are appropriate for children of all ages. I would highly suggest using this search engine in a classroom. It is formatted in a way that creates an interesting learning experience.

News Search Engines

AltaVista News – Throughout the vast amount of news to find on the internet, Alta Vista makes it easy to search. I find it easy to search for old articles. The home page makes it easy buy asking you for topic, region, and dates. Alta Vista also boasts many firsts in internet web search engines, and takes pride in its innovation.

Yahoo News - I personally find Yahoo News to be the easiest and most interactive news search engine on the web. It has a great deal of multimedia including video and slide shows to help present the news in an interesting fashion. It may not be as efficient as Alta Vista in searching for articles, but I prefer the format.

Travel Search Engines

Orbitz - This is my favorite travel search engine. The fact that I found round trip airfare to Hawaii for $450 is reason alone. Orbitz has the best deals from what I’ve found. I would suggest using this search engine for planning any school related activity that needed travel accommodations.

Side Step - This is another great site that I recently used. It is great for last minute travel deals, and searches a vast amount of travel sites at once. It automatically compares prices of other travel search engines such as Expedia and Travelosity. I would highly suggest using Side Step along with Orbitz in planning any trip.