Websearches
Websearching for educational purposes has always been a headache for the novice searcher digging through layers of information listed on one’s favorite browser. Are there any other alternatives for finding information, but Bing, Google, and Yahoo?
Making a very quick poll among my students at the university, I asked them to tell me which Web browser they favor the most. It’s not surprising to know that most of my students actually used Google as their “favorite” choice. Then, asking them to name at least two other alternatives, but Google, they simple said: Bing or Yahoo! Had they heard anything about Lycos, Excite, or Metacrawler? Of course not!
Because I am kind of old-fashioned in terms of Web searching, I still go back to those original browsers such as Lycos (http://www.lycos.com/). Lycos has been there for quite a long time, way before Google came onto the Web stage. But was interesting about it? It does filter information much more than the endless lists of links provided by the popular Web browsers. It gives you alternatives for your search in case you are using the “wrong” key words. You can also get images, video, Web-pages, and yellow pages!
If you are an old-fashioned chap like me, I am sure that you had probably used Exicte! (http://excite.com/). Excite is as old as Lycos, but different. They share similar searching principles, but Excite has a nicer way of displaying additional key words related to what you are looking for, called Are you looking for? This feature provides you with a limited list of synonyms or content-related options. Besides, it gives users a limited and more depurated search than popular alternatives.
Last but not least is Metacrawler (http://metacrawler.com/). This other “oldie” has a section for additional key words for searches as Excite. But it has a nice feature the others do not have: Your recent searches. This is great because you can see where you started and how your search evolved, in case you want to go back to pages you have not bookmarked before. Although Metacrawler does not give you a Blind Search, it tell you through which browser you are finding/filtering the information.
Students can be encouraged to use these alternative browsers, or their preferred ones. Let’s have them bear in mind that Webpages (their ownwers), such as Wikipedia, pay to be listed first in almost any search. And if students were enrolled in the English Teaching major, having in mind that they will be working with children and teenagers, I would suggest the following links:
http://www.safesearchkids.com/
I hope all this information is of good use for you all!
Jonathan
Universidad Latina
Costa Rica
Post a Comment