Founder, Inventor, Creator
Today we are releasing a Firefox Safe Search plugin. The Safe Search plugin allows you to easily search using safe search from the Firefox toolbar.
Installation:
Also here is our Safe Search firefox persona – this will make your Firefox a bit prettier! 
We all know what a children’s illustration looks like right? Sort of in-between Dr Seuss and the Gruffalo, maybe with a bit of Spot thrown in. What I want to know is why in all of the test groups I have done over the last few weeks the most vector/cartoon style stuff is more popular with kids (both boys and girls) from the ages of 8 to the ages of 12?
Spot is a good example of an illustrator moving their illustrations towards what we have found is a “preferred style of art” amongst Primary School age children.
The objects have become simplified and the “stroke” effect has been used with a greater thickness.
I can only assume that cartoon channels such as Nickelodeon & The Cartoon network have changed the style of art that the children I spoke to enjoyed. I know this is all very speculative and I am making some big assumptions but the evidence I have found whilst trying to find the correct illustrator for Safe Search has shown me that kids prefer vector based art as opposed to hand drawn objects..
Well it means that in the future we will try to keep our art more vector based, we will hire graphic designers/artists instead of illustrators. There is a place for illustration and I’m sure if they are done right they can look great however I can be confident in saying that Primary Technology will be sticking to the style we have used in the past as it seems to be a winning formula(despite the fact I tried to break it). Please don’t take this post as factual, it is not scientific. It is my opinion based on my experiences of a small(handful) of children in only a few schools.
I have been in touch with 15 illustrators over the past 10 weeks because Primary Technology has put some money aside to do some new illustrations for Safe Search. I have been a bit surprised with the responses….
I sent out a tweet asking for contacts and got a whole host of illustrators lined up to do the work, I then sent each of the illustrators an email with my requirements and stated that we could pay for an example piece.
My current illustrator is fantastic and has done nearly all of the artwork you will see in Primary Technology products. All the way from the School Email Wizard through to the animated graphic on this blog. He does rough drafts & quote for each piece and if we like it we give him the green light to go ahead. In fact every artist I have ever worked with has sent through a rough draft prior to even discussing payment. This includes artists from all around the globe.
The work is a great opportunity for children book illustrators to have their brand and style visible, surely illustrators are aware that culture is all about influence and to have a great deal of influence (40k views a day) is pretty useful for their career?
So far out of the 15 illustrators only 2 have sent through rough drafts and many have requested payment prior to even creating a rough draft. Is this normal? Do illustrators really think that their reputation is enough to be payed just to send a rough draft/idea through about some work? As someone that does a bit of web design work I never ask for cash up front, I always get paid for delivery and if the customer isn’t happy I never charge.
Anyway, I have the money so I’m going to pay to see rough draft pieces even though I think it’s backwards. If I’m not happy should I ask for my money back?
Just a quick youtube video explaining where we are at with getting youtube into the primary classroom
Enforce Safe Search by passing name=safe value=vss
I assume VSS stands for Very Safe Search
This will disable the ability for a user to change their safe search settings from strict to off.
Here is an example for you
<form action="http://www.google.com/cse" id="cse-search-box">
<div>
<input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000753778363423014722:xie0vouxf9m" />
<input type="hidden" name="ie" value="UTF-8" />
<input type="hidden" name="filter" value="1" />
<input type="text" name="q" size="35" style="font: normal 25px Arial; line-height:25px;" id="q"/>
<input type="hidden" name="safe" value=vss />
<input type="submit" name="sa" value="Safe Search" style="font: normal 25px Arial; line-height:25px;" onClick="checksearch()"/>
</div>
</form>