Education Friendly Search Engines

Tabbed browsing with Firefox has transformed my internet experience. The ability to create multiple homepages streamlines web searches. (You can tab through all your open pages by using Ctl + Tab).
Here are three education-friendly search engines that can be put on classroom computers.

• Ask for Kids or Ask.com depending upon the age of your students
• Answers.com (evaluate the difference between the classic home page and the deluxe home page)
• Yahooligans (the old stand-by)

Definitely use the tabs in Firefox to have multiple homepages (in addition to the school's home page of course!).

Explore the differences between the search engines with your students using your SmartBoard or digital projector and teach evaluation of web resources.

• Ask your students which search engines they prefer and why?
  
• What do they think of the interface? Is there too much information on the home page?
• Is the site easy to use?
  
• Submit a search in each engine and notice which sites are ranked on the first page. Compare the quality of the results.

This kind of instruction supports critical thinking skills and creates internet-savvy students.
Have a great day!