Thing 9: Search Tools Ninja

It's funny how often we take for granted that Google is how we search the Internet. When I was first teaching, I often planned lessons comparing search engines. I encouraged students to compare results and explore new tools. But I haven't done that in several years, and even in my personal searching, Google is my default. Why do I do that? I absolutely know better. I think I've gotten lazy, so I've chosen this Thing to shake up my own habits, and hopefully change my instruction. Here goes...

DuckDuckGo: I was not super impressed by the results of this search, especially when I saw that there were ad results. I was confused because I thought there would not be any ads. However, when I read more closely, I learned that they still use ads as a source of revenue, but they don't track your data. So, ok - that's good. I respect that. In reading more about DuckDuckGo, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole  - reminding myself why it is important to remember that tracking personal data is, in fact, a violation of privacy. (For the record, I recognize the irony of writing this on the Blogger platform.) I do think I, along with many others, have gotten a bit lazy about personal data privacy when it comes to online behaviors. It's just so easy. I may even learn about something I like that I didn't know existed! And then I came across these two pages, and it reminded me of a few things - the most important being a reminder of why I am leery of our school district going to all Chromebooks.

https://spreadprivacy.com/how-to-remove-google/
https://www.quora.com/Why-should-I-use-DuckDuckGo-instead-of-Google


MillionShort: Oh. My. Gosh. Now THIS is fun! I really enjoyed checking this site out and comparing results. The concept is simple: this search engine eliminates the first however many results. I really have discovered some new information this way! Again - I am reminded that I am guilty of being a bit lazy. I know better than to just assume the first few pages of search results will have what I want, but I often do not look beyond that. This is a site I will definitely be sharing with students.
*12 hours later - I have actually shown this site to students. Their minds were blown. They can't even comprehend the number 1,000,000 - so this blew their minds!

Carrot Search and Yippy: Meh. I am not impressed by either the search results or appearance on the screen. I get what they are doing, but it's boring, and definitely not kid-friendly.

Google Custom Search: This is something I want to spend some time on. Every opportunity I have to offer students high quality sites is one I will try to take advantage of. While creating a custom search engine, I saw that if your organization is a non-profit, you can remove ads from your search results, and if you are a GAFE school, ads can also be removed. That is very cool because this is something I can take advantage of - sadly, I don't think I am currently set up for this. I do have an email out to my tech guy to investigate. UPDATE: We are not set up - it has to be turned on by "an administrator." Who knows how long this will take!  Hopefully I will be able to experiment with this over the summer.

Global Trend Tracker: I think this is  really neat tool, and even the Google Trends information that is linked on the blog post is neat. I might hesitate to share this with elementary students live (which is, of course, the only way to view it) because I'm afraid the content may not be appropriate at all times. It was so neat, though, to watch the Global Trend Tracker during the PBS Great American Read kickoff show because book titles started showing up. I do get worried, however, when the top trend is for "The Outsider" and not "The OutsiderS."  Another fun fact: I was watching the Global Trend Tracker and kept seeing an odd term show up "Search Between a Bench." So, I googled it (have I learned nothing?) and learned that it was something to do with Fortnite. When did I get so old?