FACED with writing a school report on an Australian animal, Tyler Kennedy began where many students begin these days: by searching the Internet. But Tyler didn’t use Google or Yahoo. He searched for information about the platypus on YouTube.

Noah Berger for The New York Times

Tyler Kennedy, 9, at home in California, uses YouTube to research reports for school and to hunt tips to advance in his video games. In November, the number of searches on YouTube in the United States edged out those on Yahoo.

“I found some videos that gave me pretty good information about how it mates, how it survives, what it eats,” Tyler said. Similarly, when Tyler gets stuck on one of his favorite games on the Wii, he searches YouTube for tips on how to move forward. And when he wants to explore the ins and outs of collecting Bakugan Battle Brawlers cards, which are linked to a Japanese anime television series, he goes to YouTube again.

While he favors YouTube for searches, he said he also turns to Google from time to time.

“When they don’t have really good results on YouTube, then I use Google,” said Tyler, who is 9 and lives in Alameda. Calif.

Tyler’s way of experiencing the Web — primarily through video — may not be mainstream, at least not yet. But his use of YouTube as his favorite search engine underscores a shift that is much broader than the quirky habits of

At First, Funny Videos. Now, a Reference Tool. – NYTimes.com.

Circus training unites kids of all backgrounds – Wonderful World- msnbc.com.

ST. LOUIS – When looking for a way to bring together children of different races, religions and financial means, most people might not think of juggling, tumbling and aerial acts as their “go-to” tools.

Jessica Hentoff does.

Hentoff, 53, is the executive and artistic director of a circus school run out of the City Museum in St. Louis. She brings together children who normally wouldn’t cross paths and unifies them through circus training and performances.

On May 26, 1996, Mariana Cook visited Barack and Michelle Obama in Hyde Park as part of a photography project on couples in America. What follows is excerpted from her interviews with them.

Portfolio by Mariana Cook: A Couple in Chicago: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker.

BARACK OBAMA: All my life, I have been stitching together a family, through stories or memories or friends or ideas. Michelle has had a very different background—very stable, two-parent family, mother at home, brother and dog, living in the same house all their lives. We represent two strands of family life in this country—the strand that is very stable and solid, and then the strand that is breaking out of the constraints of traditional families, travelling, separated, mobile. I think there was that strand in me of imagining what it would be like to have a stable, solid, secure family life. Read Complete Article:

Inauguration Special in 3 Parts: The long-weekend of change – Nachrichten English-News – WELT ONLINE.

A national event with a global audience

Organizers of the official inaugural events have been working for weeks to get every detail ready for the historic occasion. From caterers to police forces, hotel managers to construction workers who build the stage on the west steps of the U.S. Capitol, the inauguration has consumed peoples’ attention. “There is no escaping the festive mood,” wrote the Economist.