BLEKKO Information Literacy Game!

• Looking for a fun way to teach students to assess whether web information is Credible, Accurate, Reliable and Supported (CARS)?  Or, 
• Looking for a way to get kids to focus on a worthwhile activity rather than just hangout in the library?  
• Looking for a real-life application of search engine comparisons in a one-stop shopping location? 

Look no more:  Blekko.com  ("Slash the Web!") has created a tool-game called 3 Engine Monte to meet this need.   I dare say we couldn't do a better job, nor why should we when this tool is available free of charge for all!  Intended to convince people to use their site-- which is "spam-free." This tool will become a favorite for librarians teaching information literacy and techie teachers alike. 
ACCESS? -- It should be on the black tool bar, but recent "Grep" options may require you to refresh your screen up to 3 times, until the 3 Engine Monte option appears.  Enter a keyword and get the results from 3 separate search engines  before knowing which results belong to which engine, choose the most credible column and see which engine wins!

Or, slash the end of any search word with /monte  and you will be offered your 3 search engine comparisons! 

Bekko in Beta is the Bomb

Beta Blekko is gathering attention from the high-end smarter searchers. 'not sure Granny would bring it up and render the slash tags as interesting as we informationistas, but this product is worthy of sharing with your friends. Just this morning a colleague posted this beta tool on our listserv for discussion.
Not only did I find the slash tags a wonderful addition to easy Boolean logic, narrowing my search instantly, but it was easy to figure out.  Blekko struck me as a cross between a search engine + Boolean logic + social bookmarking site. This could be a valuable tool to use for a class research project (s) with slashtags for projects, narrowing, etc. Blekko struck me as a cross between a search engine + Boolean logic + social bookmarking site. This could be a valuable tool to use for a class research project (s) with slashtags for projects, narrowing, etc.  The spell check appears to need improvement, but be an earlier adopter and wait for that!
Don't miss the wonderful tutorial...done right! View here:

blekko: how to slash the web from blekko on Vimeo.