Two years ago the original issue on search engines <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Innovative-Teaching/message/303> offered an overview of the biggest names online. This time around I thought I'd try a different tact and offer search tools that are new, unique or especially helpful for the classroom. Google, Alta Vista and Hotbot remain some of the biggest indices in terms of websites reviewed, and we each already have our favorites among them. It is my hope that among these recommendations you can find a new and different search tool to try.

I will be at NECC next month to launch the publication of my new book on Multiple Intelligences and Technology. I will be doing a book signing at the ISTE booth on Tuesday and then presenting on Wednesday. I already know a number of people I look forward to meeting there for the first time after collaborating online for a number of years now; if you'll be attending be sure to look me up!

Remember that there are now three issues left for this volume of the Innovative Teaching Newsletter, with the final issue coming out on June 16th. The list will then remain quiet over the summer, so there's no need to unsubscribe and resubscribe come Fall. Thanks to Jerry B for his input and to everyone for their continued interest and support!

• All Experts - http://www.allexperts.com/
  Touting itself as the oldest of the Q&A sites on the Web, Ask the Experts allows people to list themselves with a description of their expertise and then gives you the option of submitting a question to a specific expert. Under the education heading there are experts on everything from classroom management and education law to technology integration and physical education. This is worth a try if you're looking for practical, real-world expertise.
• AlltheWeb - http://www.alltheweb.com/
  Boasting one of the largest indexes of websites online, AlltheWeb offers a high number of relevant hits on any query you may submit. Just for a simple search of "surfaquarium" I got back 2,082 hits. There are also specific searches for images, videos, MP3 files and news items. The advanced search allows you to look online via dozens of languages, domains, IP addresses, and even document size.
• InfoGrid - http://www.infogrid.com/
  InfoGrid offers direct links to major search sites in different categories. You can either type in a direct query or click on a category and start to dig through sites listed by common sense categories. The KidGrid offers filtering so that students can look for quality links by subject areas (history, science, art writing, etc). InfoGrid tends to be a little advanced and is probably best used by middle and secondary students.
• ixQuick - http://ixquick.com/
  ixQuick is a metasearch engine, meaning that it delivers hits by searching the results of other search engines and providing a summary of its findings to you. What might make ixQuick especially intriguing is that it includes searches in many of the major languages of Europe. Teaching a foreign language class? Working with a student from Germany? ixQuick may help you provide invaluable resources for your classroom.
• Kartoo - http://www.kartoo.com
  This search tool is based in France but you can conduct English searches by clicking on the flag at the top of the page. The great feature about this site is that it delivers its hits visually, showing connections between different links and the original search term entered. Suggested additional search topics can be added to the original search to help refine your results. This is a real breakthrough for visual learners!
• Open Directory Project - http://dmoz.org/
  The ODP appeals to the populist in all of us by allowing we the people to submit site reviews and recommend URLs for consideration in its database. Because input is welcome from the public, there is a greater possibility of finding sites the big guys won't include in their directories, but there's also more subjectivity in what is a quality recommendation. Ultimately the site offers a continually fresh, growing snapshot of what's available online.
• qbSearch - http://www.qbsearch.com/
  Do you love your metasearch engine of choice but get tired of clicking through page after page sifting through duplicate hits from different sources? qbSearch delivers results from a search engine combined into a single page - up to 200 hits all in one! You can also click CONTROL-Q to turn on the Quickbrowse feature and click all the results you want to see; then press CONTROL-SHIFT-Q to view them all in one window.
• SurfWax - http://www.surfwax.com/
  SurfWax allows you to preview any page in the right-hand frame and even see where your terms appear in the document, thereby saving you time surfing to sites which don't actually meet your needs. Just click on the SiteSnap magnifying glass to the left of any hit to see the page within the frame, or click right on the page title to open it up in a new window. The SearchSets feature allows you to add together a variety of sources from different categories and save them together for convenient use.
• Teoma - http://www.teoma.com/index.asp
  Teoma is a new face on the search scene that offers a higher level of relevant hits by using subject specific popularity technology. Subject-specific popularity ranks a site based on the number of same-subject pages that link to it rather than just the general popularity of site hits. The result is a more comprehensive evaluation of a site's authority as a resource. Because it is intuitive and contextual, Teoma can deliver higher quality search results without inundating you with millions of hits that don't approximate your needs.
• Topica - http://www.liszt.com/
  Formerly known as Liszt, this is a search directory of online mailing lists and virtual communities. Type in a simple search such as "teacher" and quickly discover just how many groups are out there for those of us in education. Not all groups are housed on Topica and not all groups are open to public viewing, but you can easily subscribe and then peruse the archives. You can also search by individual messages rather than groups.
• Vivisimo - http://vivisimo.com/
  Vivisimo automatically organize search results into categories. Type in the simply query "biology," for example, and the resulting page opens up with a left-hand frame of biology sub-categories and a right-hand frame of hits. The initial listing of hits includes all recommended sites found, whereas clicking on a subcategory allows you to look at a specific subset of the search results. Great for logical people who don't want to be required to click endlessly.
• Widow - http://www.widow.com/crawl/metasearch.cgi
  This search tool can function as either a metasearch engine or a directory. Looking to peruse the entire web? Metasearch it. Looking for precise hits under a specific category? Point and click through the directory. Widow searches many of the major search engines (AltaVista, Google, HotBot, Lycos, Yahoo) and combines the same listings found at multiple search engines to save you time and frustration.

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Next Week's Topic: Virtual Field Trips

Please send in URL's of high quality sites which may be of interest to our readers to walter@surfaquarium.com! Also, I'm always looking for new topic ideas and input!

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