Instructify

April 18, 2008

Jeeves has retired while I wasn’t looking. The distinguished butler who used to field questions via the search engine “Ask Jeeves” has moved on to bigger and better things, leaving behind a search engine without a mascot, a domain now just called Ask.com.

Ask for Kids is Ask.com’s search engine for the elementary set. Like its adult counterpart, Ask for Kids allows users to type in their queries using natural language – e.g., “Where does copper come from?” But unlike adult search engines, Ask for Kids will not return a list that includes information about joining a copper trade group, or the home page of an exotic dancer whose name is Copper.

In fact, the websites returned have been green-lighted by human editors who look for age-appropriate content of educational value. A search for “What is a presidential primary?” returned a concise summary explaining U.S. presidential primaries in three sentences, as well as links to 2008 primary and caucus results, an article about delegate math, and an election glossary.

The stack of virtual books on the side of the page includes a dictionary, thesaurus, almanac, and biographical dictionary – an excellent feature that slyly teaches kids how to use traditional reference sources, just in case one of them accidentally wanders into a library sometime. Other “books” cover core subject areas like math, history, science, and geography, and the page also features a link to news resources. It’s an easy go-to site for the next time you send a student to look something up.

And don’t worry about Jeeves. Apparently he’s befriended some monkeys. (I’m not kidding.) -EMILY JACK

Ask for Kids