Bill
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 23:27:53 +0000
From: Danny Sullivan <danny@CALAFIA.COM>
Reply-To: search-engine-report-request@LISTSERV.INTERNET.COM
To: SEARCH-ENGINE-REPORT@LISTSERV.INTERNET.COM
Subject: SE Report #20, Part 1 of 2
THE SEARCH ENGINE REPORT
July 1, 1998 - Number 20 - Part 1 of 2
By Danny Sullivan
Editor, Search Engine Watch
http://searchenginewatch.com/
===================
About The Report
===================
The Search Engine Report is the e-mail companion to Search Engine
Watch, http://searchenginewatch.com/. It keeps you informed of changes
to the site and general search engine news.
The report has 31,500 subscribers. You may pass this newsletter on to
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===================
Kid-Friendly Searching From Lycos, Disney, Ask Jeeves
A few months ago, I got a message from a teacher desperate to find
some kid-friendly search services. She had done a search on a
seemingly innocent topic in front of her classroom, only to have sites
pitching pornography appear in the top results. She was anxious to
avoid a repeat performance.
There's good news for her, along with other educators and parents who
want search results appropriate for children. Three new services offer
children a safer way to search the web.
Two were introduced in June: Lycos SafetyNet and the Disney Internet
Guide, or DIG for short. Another new comer is Ask Jeeves For Kids,
which launched in March.
Lycos SafetyNet is a system that uses filtering technology to help
prevent possibly objectionable web sites from appearing in its
results. This is a first among the major crawler-based search engines.
Crawler-based services like Lycos, AltaVista, Excite and Infoseek
create their listings by visiting web pages and indexing the text they
find on them. The problem with this is that they can be easier to
trick than web guides compiled by humans, such as Yahoo and LookSmart.
For example, some porn sites place misleading text on their pages to
fool search engine crawlers into thinking they are relevant for
popular topics. In other cases, a site may indeed be relevant for a
term, but relevant to adults, not children.
To see this in action, perform a search for "toys," "chicks" or "spice
girls" on any of the major search engines, and you'll probably see
some adult sites among the top results. You may also see some
adult-oriented banner ads.
A Cyber Dialogue study conducted for Lycos found 67 percent of those
surveyed wanted the ability to block adult sites from search results
when their children are using the computer. In response to this and
other concerns, Lycos created SafetyNet. It was quietly launched a few
weeks ago, but Lycos made a public announcement on June 29.
Activating SafetyNet is easy. You visit the SafetyNet home page and
fill out a small form, which includes assigning a password for
altering SafetyNet settings.
At its basic setting, SafetyNet will filter objectionable material
from the top search results and prevent adult-oriented ads from
loading. At a higher level, SafetyNet will also block access to Lycos
chat areas, e-mail and message boards.
SafetyNet settings are stored in a cookie on the computer, so that it
remembers whether filtering has been switched on. It can be turned off
at any time, as long as the proper password is provided. Click on the
SafetyNet logo, which appears in the upper-right hand side of the
search results screen, to reach the SafetyNet control panel.
The system works by detecting pages that contain words and word syntax
common to adult or objectionable material. These pages are then pushed
to the end of the results, where they are unlikely to be found.
For example, a Lycos search for "kate winslett" without SafetyNet
brings up numerous sites offering nude pictures of the actress in the
top results. With SafetyNet on, these nude sites disappear from the
top ten.
Lycos readily admits that SafetyNet is not perfect. Some objectionable
sites may still slip through, and a smart kid can certainly figure out
how to delete the cookie. Also, access to its dynamically created
directory remains, where some adult content could be listed.
"Originally, we wanted a foolproof system," said Lycos Product Manager
Rajive Mathur. "But on the Internet, there's no way to get that
without sending an army of people to scrub each result."
The key is that SafetyNet greatly lessens the odds of an unexpected,
and unwanted, surprise. It gives parents and others an easy, first
line of defense, which they can further supplement with a software
filtering solution, if desired.
Overall, SafetyNet is an excellent enhancement for those parents and
educators who use Lycos already, because they consistently like the
results it returns. It offers a way to make their favorite service
kid-friendly.
SafetyNet is also a good alternative for those who've tried searching
at kid-friendly directories such as Yahooligans but failed to find
what they wanted. That's because Lycos, being a crawler-based service,
may have more comprehensive coverage for particular types of searches.
For best success, it's also important to understand when not to use
SafetyNet.
When SafetyNet is on, you can't search for some words at all. Search
for "sex," and you'll be told nothing could be found. Look for "sex
education," and you're essentially doing a search for "education," as
the term "sex" will be ignored. Likewise, birdwatchers looking for
information on "blue tits" are really only searching for "blue."
So, when looking for material with possible adult connotations, or
when using terms that include sexual or possibly objectionable words,
push the kids out of the room and turn SafetyNet off. You'll get much
better results. With it on, you'll probably get frustrated.
Likewise, turn SafetyNet off if your searches don't seem to turn up
any good matches. You may be using a term that is filtered out because
of connotations you don't realize exist.
In contrast to Lycos SafetyNet, Disney has taken a tried-and-tested
approach of handpicking sites for inclusion in its new DIG service.
This is filtering by humans, rather than machines. The advantage is
that humans usually do a better job in categorizing the web, so you
can expect the Disney guide to be a good starting place for kids to
explore the web. The same is true for Yahooligans, the
long-established children's directory from Yahoo.
Directories are an especially good place to begin searching when your
topic is broad, such as "travel" or "sports." This is because you'll
find often discover categories that help you narrow your focus.
The Disney guide is produced in partnership with Inktomi, which
provides results to HotBot and powers supplemental results to Yahoo
and Snap. However, Inktomi is doing something different with Disney.
Its technology is being used both to provide matching pages from a
select set of web sites and to also help organize those sites into
categories, according to Kevin Brown, Inktomi's marketing director.
This categorization is something Inktomi has not previously done with
its other partners, but the company can't say more about it at the
moment, Brown said.
It's also uncertain what will happen in the wake of Disney's new stake
in Infoseek. It seems likely that Inktomi will continue to power DIG,
especially in light of the specialty service it is providing.
The third entry is based on Ask Jeeves, a unique search service that
lists questions its thinks you want answered in response to a search,
then takes you to web pages that answer those questions.
For example, enter "world cup," and it will display results like
"Where can I find the latest news about the 1998 World Cup" or "Where
can I find a list of the all-time best players in international
soccer." Clicking on the Ask Jeeves logo next to each question takes
you to a relevant web site with the answers.
Ask Jeeves For Kids follows the same model, but results are oriented
for children. My favorite response was when I tested a search for
"sex." Ask Jeeves responds with "Where do babies come from?"
The regular Ask Jeeves service also acts as a metacrawler, presenting
results from several of the major search services below its own
answers. Ask Jeeves For Kids provides the same functionality, but it
filters out any objectionable sites that are on SurfWatch's block
list.
Lycos SafetyNet
http://personal.lycos.com/safetynet/safetynet.asp
Disney Internet Guide (DIG)
http://www.disney.com/dig/today/
Ask Jeeves For Kids
http://www.ajkids.com/
Yahooligans
http://www.yahooligans.com/
Children's Search Engines
http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/kids.html
Still want more? This new Search Engine Watch page lists additional
sites of interest to kids, parents and educators.
===================
End of Part 1
===================
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