Safe Search Engines For Children. I was pointed towards this blog entry which looks at 13 search engines for children, and ranks them on a basis of visual appeal, relevance, commercial v educational and ease of navigation. The author (didn't notice who it was, and they weren't making it plain) reckons that Quintura Kids comes out on top, although it got exactly the same results as one called Fact Monster. Obviously this is going to be a personal choice, but it's an interesting matrix to look at if you're interested in such things.
I've looked at Quintura Kids before, but I thought I'd take another look. It's pretty much as it was the last time I saw it. Nice simple interface, with a number of predefined search terms, such as 'around the world' (though the first 9 entries were all US based which didn't quite make sense to me), and when you run a search you get a nice little tag cloud at the top of screen, giving good navigation. The content is based on Yahoo for Kids, so you're really just comparing interfaces more than anything else.
There are a few oddities - the words 'lesbian' and 'gay' are acceptable, but 'homosexual' isn't, which struck me as a little odd. Nothing for 'confederate states america' and for 'confederate states' there was one reference, to the Emancipation Proclamation, and that I thought was a little odd. I'd have expected some general reference or link to a site offering an overview of American history, but there you are.
Of course, the problem with all of these things is 'what is a 'kid'?' I don't actually like the word myself, but that's by the by. A 6 year old isn't going to have the same interests as a 15 year old, but they can both be classed as children. There's no clear indication on the site as to what they class as a 'kid', but then one could say the same of most examples of this type of search engine.
So, if you've an interest, it's worth a quick read, with useful pointers to various engines.
Phil another problem is managing the habits of different kids, some young kid has different search preferences when compared with a mature kid who searches
Posted by: Design for MySpace | August 21, 2007 at 06:20 PM