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Savvy Searching
by Anne Collier
Whether your child is five or fifteen, chances are he or
she will eventually turn to the Internet for information.
After all, it's a gold mine-- a bottomless treasure chest of
facts, figures, news, games, trivia, homework help and more.
But just as your kids develop "book smarts" and "street
smarts", they'll need to acquire "search smarts"-- the
tricks of safe, constructive and efficient searching. Here
are some tips, along with recommendations on top-notch kids'
search-engines.
The Nitty-Gritty on Search-Engines
To be Search-Savvy, you need to know which
search-engines are best. Here's a comparison of seven
kid-focused search-engines. Our research was conducted using
real kids' queries, for instance, several of our testers
were researching reports, one on Native Americans, another
on black-footed ferrets. We also searched on kids' areas of
interest, like Britney Spears and Pokemon. To explore each
site's "safety", we searched on words like "sex". On a sad
note: In years past, one of our favorite kids' search
engines was Searchopolis. As of August, 2001, N2H2, the
parent company behind Searchopolis, no longer offers this
engine.
Ask Jeeves Kids (CSR All Star Award Winner)
Address: www.ajkids.com
Ads: None that we ran into.
Safe? Our "sex" search led to 18 web site links, several of
which gave some information on reproduction and HIV/Aids.
Like Yahooligans, fairly innocuous material.
Delivery: Only a handful of results each time, but relevancy
was fairly amazing and just right for elementary and middle
school kids.
Speed: Great
Strengths: Relevancy and focus. Jeeves never turns up too
much to absorb.
Weaknesses: Not great on obscure questions such as, "Who
does the voice of Spongebob Squarepants?" or "Why do
Dalmatians have spots?" (It didn't turn up any results for
these.)
Noteworthy: Jeeves is "natural language" searching. That's
great when you have "why" questions, but when you just want
to find "Britney Spears" or "black-footed ferrets," Jeeves
still delivers. Just the first result listed for "Native
American tribes" listed more than 50 tribes!
Yahooligans! (CSR All Star Award Winner)
Address: www.yahooligans.com
Ads: Yes. Kid-friendly banner ads linking to external sites
(e.g., Luigi's Mansion game for GameCube), "house ads," and
sponsored games (Disney, Gigex), etc.
Safe? Our search on "sex" brought up 2 category matches
dealing with anatomy and 8 sites on cell division, etc.
Pretty innocent stuff.
Delivery: Results are not comprehensive, but plentiful, and
almost always what we were looking for (high relevancy). In
a "Native American tribes" search, a "category match" of
"Native American tribes, nations, and bands" yielded more
than 70 names of such, leading to at least several pages for
each of these - generally at elementary-school reading
level. For a "black-footed ferret" search, we got four
results, but they were just right - all that this site's
audience would need for a school report.
Speed: Good
Strengths: "Category Matches" at the top of each results
page helped us zero in on what we wanted. The site is
age-specific, so you know results are appropriate to kids
ages 7-12.
Weaknesses: Not quite as good for research/homework as the
noncommercial (dot-org) search sites.
Noteworthy: Yahooligans! delivered just about every time. It
was one of our top choices, neck and neck for No. 1 with Ask
Jeeves Kids.
LycosZone
Address: www.lycoszone.com
Ads: Yes. Clearly marked, but prominent and targeting
parents more than kids.
Safe? Our "sex" search brought up 11 links, several of which
gave frank discussions about sexual issues and activity.
Lycos does place a "you are visiting a site outside of
LycosZone" in between the search page and the site.
Delivery: Fair. Results were neither comprehensive nor
always relevant, and some results linked to defunct pages or
sites. "Black-footed ferret" turned up a page on pets (the
black-footed ferret is an endangered species!) and a
Shakespeare page. Use the site for its directory, not its
search engine!
Speed: Slow
Strengths: Good internal content from partners such as
Learning Network's Fact Monster, Marshall Brain's
"HowStuffWorks," etc.
Weaknesses: The search engine, sharing the bottom spot of
our list with AOL's Kids Only Search.
Noteworthy: In a search for "Britney Spears," its
"Multimedia Encyclopedia" links all led to
no-longer-existing pages.
AOL's Kids Only Search
Address: http://webcenter.search.aol.com
Ads: Yes. Kid-friendly; AOL Time Warner properties (e.g.,
TimeforKids.com) and other kid-targeting sponsors
Safe? Very. Our "sex" search brought up zero matches.
Delivery: Neither plentiful nor particularly relevant.
"Black-footed ferret" turned up one result on prairie dogs.
"Native American tribes" got 41 results, but the first page
was all about individuals - Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull,
Pocahontas.
Speed: Good
Strengths: Some searches turned up "Search Suggestions" as
well as Web site links, which helped narrow the searches a
bit, but they weren't nearly as relevant as Yahooligans!'
"Category Matches." As with LycosZone, the site's directory
is better than its search engine.
Weaknesses: Numerous, outweighing its strengths.
Noteworthy: Safe, but shares our "least favorite"
search-engine slot with LycosZone.
Zeeks' Search
Address: http://www.zeeks.com/Search/zeekSearch.asp
Ads: Yes. "House ads" that don't take you off the page.
Safe?: Nope. Three mouse clicks into our search on "sex,"
and we were on a porn page.
Delivery: Relevancy depends on which reference you pick
under the search box (after typing in the word). So kids
have to know the best place (e.g., InfoPlease, CNN, or
National Geographic) to find info on a particular
product.
Speed: Not great - because it takes search-box typing plus
at least one click to a source.
Strengths: The only one we could see is the fact that all
sources are displayed at a glance.
Weaknesses: Some of the reference links are no longer
available (e.g., StudyWeb) others link to 404 Page Not Found
error messages.
Noteworthy: This is clunky searching at best. Nice for Zeeks
to include this service in its lineup, but it can't compete
with Jeeves, Yahooligans! or Awesome Library.
KidsClick!
Address: http://KidsClick.org
Ads: None.
Safe?: Our search on "sex" gave us four matches, two of
which gave straight talk on sexual issues and
orientation.
Delivery: The 4 results we got for "Native American tribes"
and the 2 for "black-footed ferret" weren't as immediately
useful as what we got at Jeeves and Yahooligans!.
Speed: Fine.
Strengths: Clearly a nonprofit service - you can count on
results being educational (including those from a search for
"games").
Weaknesses: The database is about half the size as Awesome
Library's, search results present an awful lot of text for
kids to wade through, and a search for "Spongebob" yielded
no results!
Noteworthy: Lack of ads is nice, but search results are
disappointing.
Awesome Library
Address: http://www.awesomelibrary.org
Ads: None.
Safe? Yes. Our search on "sex" brought 15 matches, all of
which were squeaky clean, dealing with cell division, basic
biology, etc.
Delivery: Results of educational searches were great -
plentiful and relevant. Our search for Native American
tribes yielded 26 results, with the most useful one starred
for us!
Speed: Fine
Strengths: The database includes 17,000 sites-- all
hand-picked by senior-level educators and updated daily.
Weaknesses: Search results for current pop-culture topics
(Britney Spears, Pokemon, SpongeBob, etc.,) are weak or
non-existent.
Noteworthy: The directory is in Spanish, French, German,
Italian, and Portuguese, as well as English.
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Anne Collier is editor of the
SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter and president of NetFamilyNews.org,
a nonprofit news service for parents and teachers of online
kids.
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Search Smarts 101
- Bookmark the top search-engine picks for your kids
to use. Use a combination of kids' search-engines and
filtered grown-up ones for best results. Make sure
filtering options are turned on in all browsers kids
use.
- Establish rules. The rules should state that
a) these are the only search-engines kids may use, b)
kids notify grownups when they're going to do research on
the Web; and c) filtering may not be turned off in any
search-engine a child uses.
- Monitor kids' search-engine use, both to assure
safe exploring and to determine that children are finding
reading-level appropriate material. Search with the
child occasionally, check his or her progress during
research, and periodically try out the browser and its
filtering software yourself.
- Teach your kids how to use single and combined
keywords to search. When combining words, many search
engines simply let you write the words as you normally
would, for instance, black squirrel. Some engines require
quotation marks around the terms or the use of connector
words or symbols. Information on advanced searches is
typically found on all search engine
homepages.
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