Rollyo: Personal Search

Released in beta last week, Rollyo is the latest product to venture into the burgeoning social software marketplace. Rollyo allows users to create and share their own personal search engine.

In a nutshell, here's how Rollyo works:

1. Create a Rollyo "Search Roll" (this is Rollyo speak for "search tool").
2. Pick and add up to 25 website url's to your Search Roll.
3. Your customized search engine (powered by Yahoo! Search) is ready to share (or mark private)!
4. Use your Search Roll to find targeted results, based on the URLS you listed.

Since this product was just hit the web, I haven't had time to really get a feel for it, but so far it seems like their are a couple obvious ways Rollyo can be used as a constructivist-based learning tool.

• Teacher's can use Rollyo to create and populate a Search Roll with websites that are relevant to course content and then place a Rollyo Search Box on the course blog, or website. Or if the teacher is using a LMS or LCMS such as Moodle or Tapped-In, they can add a link to their course Search Roll.

• Students can create topic-based Search Roll(s) and then utilize the search results in research papers, group projects, or as reflective entries on course weblogs. In addition, students can share Search Rolls with their learning communities. Students can also venture outside their peer group and explore the larger Rollyo community for relevant Search Rolls.

It's also important to note that Rollyo Search Rolls can be marked "private" or "public"--this is particularly important for student Search Rolls. In addition, Rollyo users can add tags (keywords) to their Search Roll to make it easier for others in the community find your directory.

Rollyo, like other social search tools BlinkList and My Web 2.0, is still in beta and is subject to tweaks, bugs, and changes. But it seems like the Rollyo team is off to a fast start, and undoubtedly will find many friends and admirers in the education community.

So as they say in Rollyo-land: Get Rolling!

Links

• BlendedEDU Searchroll
• Rollyo: About
• Rollyo: FAQ
• Rollyo: Blog

Tags: rollyo social+bookmarking yahoo social+search yahoo+search education my+web+2.0 blinklist