KartOO Search Engine

While looking for different search engines to use, I found one called KartOO. Not really sure about the way it is pronounced, maybe "kar - too" like a sneeze or maybe "kart - oh". It was developed in France and can be searched for websites, images, videos, and Wikipedia content. KartOO is a free, cartographic search engine that retrieves results from numerous other engines, such as Yahoo, AltaVista, Hotbot (and the list goes on) and then shows them in a visual, interactive map using Flash.

You can choose which language you want to see the results in and the words and menus are specific to each country. The left-side column shows the initial search in categories. Then as you move the mouse cursor across the result pages, keywords are highlighted and a brief description appears on the left side of the screen. A separate window opens when you click one of the pages. Gold lines link the subjects and sites. Clicking on one of the Topics in the left column takes you to more interactive maps.

There is a filtering system, bit it is very weak. Some words would give the message that if you were under 18, please do not go on into the site instead of blocking it. Our District filter caught most of the "usual" searches, but unfortunately some others came on through. I wasn't able to create my own custom search engine like I do in Google so only specific sites can be searched.

A first time user may not find KartOO very user friendly. The graphics aren't displayed in any type of organization, just kind of thrown around on the page. Options for saving and printing the maps are two very usable features.

If you have found a search engine you would like to recommend, please leave us a comment.