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Unique search service Ask Jeeves has launched a new version this week just for kids. Called Ask Jeeves For Kids, the service expects to provide a fast, easy and safe way for children to find answers to their questions on the Internet. Ask Jeeves for Kids does more than return a "hit list" of possibly relevent sites. Instead, like its older counterpart Ask Jeeves, it actually answers the searchers question, and takes them right to the site that is most appropriate, eliminating the frustrating search through countless sites which don't help you at all. In other words, you ask a question, and Ask Jeeves for Kids tries to answer it. In case Ask Jeeves for Kids can't answer your question, it then searches through a number of other search engines.

 Suzanne Lanoue of Ask Jeeves noted "we share the concern that children have a safe and appropriate place to explore the Internet, so each question and answer in Ask Jeeves for Kids has been selected by a research editor for child-appropriate ("G" rated) content. We are currently developing a system where the metasearch results for Ask Jeeves for Kids will be filtered using software from Net-Nanny. This software will block access to sites that are not child-appropriate. Until this system is implemented, the metasearch will present results from Yahooligans, Yahoo's search engine for children."

The Ask Jeeves for Kids graphics and user interface are designed especially for children and each month Ask Jeeves for Kids will feature questions on a particular theme. This month Ask Jeeves for Kids features the 1998 Winter Olympics and Japanese culture. Ask Jeeves for Kids is still at the testing stage and would like help in creating a great information resource for kids. The test site is open for exploration and feedback at: http://www.ajkids.com, and the Ask Jeeves folks welcome your feedback on the service.

More on how Ask Jeeves For Kids Works...
Other search engines (such as Alta Vista, Excite, Lycos, Infoseek, and Hotbot) match keywords in your search request to an index of words derived by cataloging almost every word found on the Internet. These sites return a list of "page hits" and it is up to the user to surf the sites and refine the search in order to find the desired information. This can be a long and frustrating process. Yahoo, by contrast, is a comprehensive categorized directory of sites that allows a user to find all sites of a certain type. However, like the other search engines, users of Yahoo must typically surf through multiple sites to find what they need.

With Ask Jeeves for Kids, unlike other search engines, users type in a question in plain English and then Ask Jeeves for Kids presents a list of matched questions (usually just a few). After the user selects the closest match, Ask Jeeves for Kids takes them directly to a site that was selected by the Ask Jeeves for Kids research staff as being an appropriate answer to the question. The user is never presented with a dreaded response such as "2348 matches to your query"! For example, if you ask "Who is the king of Siam?", Ask Jeeves for Kids would respond with "Who is the head of state of Thailand?". When you click on that question, Ask Jeeves for Kids takes you to a particular page on a site that answers the question.