Jennifer Sayre
SLM 521
Best
Search Engines
After careful research
and
consideration, the following are what I have chosen to be the best
search
engines out on the Internet as of
News
Search Engines
Google
News – The ‘In
The News’ section of this site is a useful tool in that it displays one
or two
key words which link to reports on the
corresponding topic. Another feature of this site is the option to
“Search
News” or “Search the Web”. By choosing “Groups” one can read on-line
‘threads’
written by other Google users on every topic from “Ben Franklin” to
“Frankfurt”.
Yahoo News
Yahoo News allows the user to narrow down
their search to; “All News”, “Yahoo! News Only”,”News Photos”, or
“Audio/Video”. Visual learners will
enjoy clicking “Images” to retrieve photos related to their search. One
can
also personalize the news home page.
Search
Engines for
Kids
Yahooligans The home page of this site looks very
appealing to students; it uses bright colors and “cartoonish” icons. In addition, the “School
Kids Click That
this site was created and is maintained
by librarians (Ramapo Catskill Library System) is immediately evident
from its
well-organized home page. Judging by
links offered, “Kids Click” is definitely educationally oriented. Students have easy access, through the home
page, to web-sites pertaining to; poetry, foreign languages,
encyclopedias, and
music.
Media
Search Engines
Alta
Vista Comprehensive site that allows
you to search
among over 570 million image files and 13 million video and audio files. You can refine searches by specifying a
color, source, and duration of files.
This site is also very simple for all ages to use.
All The Web – This
search engine runs in connection with Yahoo.
The best aspect about this search engine is its setting options. You can activate an “Offensive Content
Filter” which prevents you from receiving indecent search results. You can even change the appearance of the
search engine site in the same way that you would “change skins” on a
media
player. Like Alta Vista, All the Web
pulls a vast amount of relevant results for any media search.
Dogpile – When you use this meta search engine, you
really do get a
huge “pile” of results from other search engine. A
great aspect of this search engine is the
ability to search by relevance or by names of search engines. You can find all types of images and
multimedia from this site. The advance
search section allows you to narrow results, and there is also a “Tips
for
Searching” section for additional help.
Overall, this search engine is “user friendly” for all ages.
Metacrawler –
This search engine appears to be similar to Dogpile, with a different
appearance. With Metacrawler, you get
results from a wide variety of engines.
The most unique aspect of this search engine is its advanced
search. In addition to exact phrases and
Boolean terms, you can also narrow your search based on time frame,
domain name
(.gov, .com, .org, etc.) while filtering out adult material. Metacrawler is definitely a great place to go
for the best search engine results for media, shopping, news and more!
Education
Search
Engines
Edu
Hound – This site
sets students, teachers, or parents with a list of categories to choose
from. You narrow your topic by selecting
listed subtopics and then get to a listing of relevant websites. The sites are sorted by popularity. The most interesting feature of this site is
the “Hot List”: the site helps you
create a website for you to post your favorite links.
This search engine also features a weekly
spotlight section on educational websites.
For all educational needs, this is a great place to begin your
search!!!
Awesome Library
– This site holds true to its name…AWESOME!
First, there is a special door for kids, teachers, teens,
parents,
librarians and college students. Then,
you choose from a wide variety of categories and subcategories. The search results are sorted and easy to
follow. For example, the “teacher
door” sorts results by general list,
materials, research papers, multimedia, projects, and more!! All sites used in this engine are reviewed by
educators. Covers a LARGE amount of
topics important to ALL stakeholders in education.