I was a little blown away that there are so many different search engines available for both adults and kids. Using a few different search engines, you can see the difference and why Google tries to be the stand out above the others – or is just that we are so used to Google, it’s layout, how quick the results are and what it can offer.

I made a table to compare the differences. Google was better than Yahoo. And in the kid search Kiddle (who is made by Google) was far better than WackySafe.

Comparison of Two Search Engines

Google Yahoo
Search – Flamingo

Frist result was the youtube site but no videos or pictures like yahoo.

Next was lots of images.

Then the Wikipedia site.

Google looks a lot cleaner and organised that the Yahoo site.

 Search – Flamingo

First result – youtube site with lots of pictures and videos from that site.

I had to scroll down a bit to find a national geographic site for kids. And close to the bottom was a Wikipedia site.

 

 

Kids Search Engine

Kiddle WackySafe
Search Topic – Flamingo

Kiddle displays each site with a picture to the side. Looks organised and well presented to be able to find what you are looking for. There were more sites about facts rather than just flamingos.

But overall an easy site to navigate for children.

 Search Topic – Flamingo

WackySafe is displayed a lot like Kiddle. But the third site gives me a picture of a seahorse even though the site is about flamingos. Scrolling down, there are plenty of sites that go off topic, like watches, cats, accommodation and a flamingo plant.

Not as easy or kid friendly as Kiddle.

It was also very interesting to read through the history of search engines and see how far back it went to their creation. Some aspects I had no idea and others I remember using like AOL – which was great as a teenager as you had everything in the program like searching and instant messaging other AOL users. How far we have come since then!