Lisa Dorsey
Search Engines
Kid Friendly
search engines
This site seems a little boring –
until you realize that there are no advertisements for pop-tarts or toys
flashing – a bonus! This site was
created by child librarians to present a safe and effective search engine for
children. It is broken down into
categories such as animals, health, the arts, etc. When I clicked on animals, it presented me
with a list and I chose horse. It then
gave me a very concise, neat list of different sites associated with
horses. While it may not be flashy, it
is chock full of good information and easy to follow.
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/
This site was kid friendly and
easy to use, as its adult counterpart. I
thought the “pile of books” on the side was useful for kids with reference
areas in science, astronomy, math; and items such as clip art, a dictionary and
thesaurus. The website is a combination
of “human editorial” and filtering devices.
A very kid friendly site!
http://www.ajkids.com/hr_site/AboutUs.asp
News Search
Engines
This site has over 4,500 news
sources that can be searched.
Information is constantly updated and current. A great resource for teachers and
students. You can also do advance
searches. Check out the latest news in
health, business, science, sports and more.
CNN
A leader in the news, this site provides
readers with a quick read of current top news stories. CNN is a common website to visit, but it is
tops when delivering information. If you
are a news junkie, sign up for the e-mail news updates.
Shopping Search
Engines
I enjoyed this website because it
offered a wide variety of categories with many items. The listings were detailed. There is even a holiday shopping guide which allows
you to search by price – so you can keep within your budget. You can pick categories such as weddings and
pets for gift ideas.
http://shopping.msn.com/category.aspx?catid=171
I was hoping to find a website
that was not as well known as the giants
http://images.google.com/froogle
Meta-search
engines
The name and the logo alone are
great! This search engine combines the
bes of Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, About,
Looksmart, Overture, and Findwhat.
Easy to use, I tested it out using Andy Warhol as my search phrase. It returned a list of sources that were more
extensive than the search engine I usually use. You can also view items by item or by search
engine.
With this website, you can find
lots of sources for your search. What I
liked best about this site was how you can take a Sitesnap – offering you a
chance to look at a site without entering it.
You can then take that and place it in your infocubby for easy access
later.
Ask! Search Engines
Ask
Jeeves – Best Ask! site
I think Ask Jeeves is a great
site to ask questions and get answers.
I also tested out one of their new sites, famous people. I put in a local artist who has paintings at
the Maryland Historical Society. The
site actually returned several sites for him, which I was glad to see. The search engine is very simple and easy to
use, and well organized.
Google
–Worst Ask! site
The main reason I picked this was
for its trustworthiness or lack thereof.
I read an article (http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/oct02/west.htm)
in Searcher by a former researcher for Google.
The main idea was that this researcher would not get paid if people
complained about their answers. This
became an incentive for researchers to take the easy questions. Google is a great site over –all, but because
of this, you have to question the way they handle their employees – and those
who visit their site. This website also
charges for its answers, anywhere from $4 to a couple hundred dollars. This is why it received my “worst”ask site
review.
http://answers.google.com/answers/