Galaxy It is a brand new search engine that looks like it might be useful for English Language Learners. It’s still in its beginning stages, and has a number of bugs, but it holds a lot of potential.
You type in what you’re searching for, and then you’ll get text of the top seven results in boxes, with the center box holding your search term. You then have the option of clicking on the “organized” version, which will continue to show your search term in the center, but the boxes around it will indicate various refined categories related to your search.
You can then move any of those refined categories in the center, and then the seven top results related to that category appear in the boxes.
You can use the same process for images, videos and news.
Not only can it help English Language Learners find what they’re looking for but it can also help them develop better categorization skills.
I’ve placed the link on my English Themes For Beginners page under Search Engines.
You are right on target with your review of Galaxy IT. I’m one of the alpha testers, and I think that anyone who is interested in research while like the organizational structure too.
My only problem with it was when I wanted to go “Back” to my original search topic, it booted me out of the search engine completely. There was also a limit to the number of changes of categories for one topic. It came up with a message stating that it was still in beta. I like the idea, but I think that I’ll stick with either Quintura for my visual learners or with Vivisimo for the rest. Vivisimo is especially good for those students who haven’t figured out what it means when I tell them that “You need to narrow your topic.” I don’t know how many times I’ve typed in a student’s “topic in Vivisimo and had them look at the subject headings on the side and go “Oh!” One of those wonderful light bulb going on moments! LOL