Search Engine Primary Schools

[amartin]

Hi All,

Just wanting to get some feedback on what search engines you guys use at your primary schools. With safesearch on with Google there can still be some questionable results. Do you guys use any alternatives or do you feel Google coupled with sufficient monitoring software is enough?

Thanks

[Oaktech]

I didn't get involved in it particularly besides setting the policy, but we trialled Swiggle for students enforced and it lasted a week before the computing lead asked me to switch it back to Google safe search.

 

For context we also have Smoothwall removing most ads and monitoring/blocking searches and results. Our esafety auditors are happy with that.

[Cat_Jam148]

We have used a few different options in the past but have always returned to using Google Search. We use adblockers to prevent any 'dodgy' adverts, and have safe search forced on for all devices. You do get the odd questionable result but nothing is perfect, and something will always slip through regardless of what service you are using or how many protections you have in-place. Our Safeguarding team have been happy with this. Edited February 12, 2025 by Cat_Jam148

[LeMarchand]

My main school uses Swiggle. Action taken on reporting results seems to vary by who picks up the ticket (not that we do it often), though we have found that if they do find a games site using the Swiggle result somehow bypasses our filter. Sort of looking around for alternatives, but it seems to work "OK". Other two just use Safe Search + filter.

[dhicks]

Just wanting to get some feedback on what search engines you guys use at your primary schools.

 

For April 1st one year, we redirected Google searches to "magoogle.com", which had a picture of our headmaster (Magoo) instead of the Google logo. I think we still own the domain name, so we could use that as a filtering proxy for Google search results.

[sigma]

My main school uses Swiggle. Action taken on reporting results seems to vary by who picks up the ticket (not that we do it often), though we have found that if they do find a games site using the Swiggle result somehow bypasses our filter. Sort of looking around for alternatives, but it seems to work "OK". Other two just use Safe Search + filter.

 

I tried Swiggle but its not very robust and was quite happy to offer Andrew Tate's "preferences" and other nasty stuff in the search results (if you push it), so wouldn't recommend it.