Ms. Moyer’s “Best in Show” Search Engines
Just like any other product, the Internet has great resources, mediocre resources, and also awful resources! Below, I have what I consider to be the best search engines in each category. I hope that my research helps you in your search today!! Try them and feel free to email me at <kmoyer@syc.k12.pa.us> and let me know what you think of my rankings.
Kidsclick - This engine is by far the best children’s search engine that I found. It has great topical searches by major categories and I really liked how the main page is not loaded with clutter. Searches are great because they yield the reading level for each site and also include information about illustrations. <http://www.kidsclick.org/>
In your spare time: Another good kids’ site which is really cool but a bit less educational is yahooligans. This site has all kinds of search options for topics, current event, entertainment, games, etc. It is really easy to navigate and alive with actions! <http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/>
Kart00 - This search tool really impressed me because it has an interactive and visually stimulating results page. After typing in a search topic this site breaks down the topic into a visual display of all related categories to the original search. You then choose your focus for a more concise listing of sites. I think that this site will be great for student research papers especially when they are trying to refine topics! <http://www.kartoo.com/>
Dogpile - Dogpile is a great source for lots of web information about any topic. It is a place for students to go if they are looking up little known facts or just browsing the net. I like dogpile because it includes extensive audio and video sites while searching all of the big three for information: google, yahoo, and ask jeeves. http://www.dogpile.com/
Best News
Altavista - For a search engine that seemed dead for a few years, Altavista today has excellent searchable images. Not only does one get the best of the web but also thumbnails of all of the images before waiting for them to load in full size form. I used to be a loyal altavista browser and am starting to go back mainly for the images. <http://www.altavista.com/image/default>
Aardvark Travel - I just found this search engine and it is excellent. This is a great site for researching, planning and booking trips. It could also be used simply for researching and it is so easy to use. All you have to do is enter your destination city, state or country and aardvark quickly retrieves maps, hotel, car rentals, airlines, and much more! This site is my new favorite! <http://www.aardvarktravel.net/>
Travelocity - Since I love to travel, as do most people, I find that I have always trusted and found that travelocity is an excellent search engine. Travelocity offers extensive searches of hundreds of airlines and hotel chains and while searching there are no pesky popups. <http://www.travelocity.com/>
BBC World Service - This search engine is one that I really think is both informative, timely and easy to navigate. It includes all breaking news, in-depth reports, sports, etc. and I like the fact that this site does not limit students to American news. My students need to know that there is a world happening outside of our town and our country. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/>
Yahoo News - I like this search engine mostly because it includes news from all of the major newspapers and wire services in the country. This engine offers all of the big headlines of the day and breaks news into easily navigable links like most popular, national, world, politics, health, entertainment, and my personal favorite, odd news. <http://news.yahoo.com/>