Quintura for kids - a search engine for our youngest surfers

Yakov, CEO of the Quintura search we are using as part of East Lothian's relaunched community from January 2007, has just got in touch to announce the launch of KidsQuintura. What I clumsily but, I hope, descriptively coined as visual connected searching has wowed most people we've shown so far for its intelligence at working out what it is you really want to know about.

Quintura for Kids is a step into the elementary/primary sphere, with a cutesy search panel, changing with the seasons, providing some graphical 'I'm feeling lucky' buttons to keep the youngest searchers happy and some limited searches to keep those aged 5-8 or so a little more focussed. Just clicking on the donkey gave me some animal results that would help any Extreme Learning project like this one.

It has some drawbacks because of the limited search results but would prove more useful than Google, say, as an initial search for kids embarking on new projects. As we near completion of Mark 1 of our general East Lothian sharing and exploring portal, due in January, we are already looking at how we can differentiate and offer younger learners something more suited to their tastes. This looks like a first positive step in that direction. Thanks, guys!

I'd be keen to hear from Yakov and the team on how they will expand the educational content included in the results. Can we have all the content from Scottish kids' blogs included in the searches, for example? I'd also love to hear what some of the Primary teachers and parents think of it and what tweaks might be made.

Comments

[OllieBray]

This is great news. I love Quintura - thanks for sharing this link.

[Jörg Weisner]

Thanks for the link. Looks very nice and inspiring. What a pity, that my sons are too old now (21 and 23 years).

So I have to wait for the grandchildren ;-)

[Lynne Lewis]

Thanks for the link Ewan I shall try it out on my 6 year old son. Primary education is definitely needing something a little more focused and I shall certainly have a go at using this next term.

[Lynne Lewis]

Thanks for the link Ewan I shall try it out on my 6 year old son. Primary education is definitely needing something a little more focused and I shall certainly have a go at using this next term.