Alta Vista Secrets
Secrets in This Chapter
#208: Speed Up AltaVista with a Text-Only Search 182
#209: Restrict Your Search to U.S. Sites Only 183
#210: Restrict Your Search to English-Language Pages Only 183
#211: Use Babel Fish to Translate a Foreign Page 183
#212: Fine-Tune Your Search with Boolean Operators 184
#213: Create Complex Boolean Expressions 184
#214: Search for an Exact Phrase 185
#215: Expand Your Search with Wildcards 185
#216: Search for Pages on a Specific Web Site or Domain 186
#217: Restrict Your Search to a Page's Title, Text, or Links 186
#218: Search for Pages That Are Like a Specific Page 186
#219: Search for Pages That Include a Specific Image 187
#220: Search for Pages That Include a Specific Applet or Object 187
#221: Search for Pages That Link to a Given Page 187
#222: Speed Up Your Search with AltaVista Shortcuts 187
#223: Apply More Precision to Your Searches 189
#224: Fine-Tune Your Search with AltaVista's Advanced Web Search Page . . . 189
#225: Filter AltaVista's Search Results for Family Consumption 189
#226: Personalize Your AltaVista Search Results 189
#227: Narrow Your Search Results with AltaVista Prisma 190
#228: Expand Your Search with the Open Directory 190
#229: Search for Images 190
#230: Search for MP3 and Audio Files 190
#231: Search for Video Files 191
#232: Search for News Headlines 191
#233: Convert Units of Measure 191
#234: Add an AltaVista Toolbar to Your Web Browser
#235: Access Other Services from the AltaVista Home Page
#236: Find Out if Your Personal Web Pages Are in the AltaVista Index #237: See What Other People Are Searching For
193 193
ltaVista has a long and storied history.
It all started back in 1995, when AltaVista debuted as the first full-text Internet search engine. The AltaVista search engine was created as a research product within the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) research lab, and AltaVista remained a DEC subsidiary until 1999, when it was spun off into a private company controlled by Internet venture firm CMGI. AltaVista barely weathered the dot-com implosion, and in early 2003 the company was purchased by Overture, which supplies its own paid results to other search sites. At about the same time, Overture also purchased the AllTheWeb search engine from FAST. Then, later in 2003, Overture itself was purchased by Yahoo!. So now Yahoo! owns AltaVista (and AllTheWeb—and, via another purchase, Inktomi)—even though it doesn't use AltaVista results on its own site.
During the dot-com boom, AltaVista attempted to join the portal bandwagon, and added a variety of portal-like content and features to the main AltaVista search index. This attempt at diversification was unsuccessful, and following the dot-com bust, AltaVista returned to its more modest, dedicated search index engine roots. Unfortunately, during its period of portal envy, AltaVista lost its luster as a search engine and was surpassed in both quality and quantity of results by dedicated search engines such as Google and AllTheWeb.
Today, even though it's not as big as Google or AllTheWeb, AltaVista (www.altavista.com) does offer more powerful search tools, as well as some truly useful type-specific searches, such as its MP3 and video searches.
AltaVista offers a speed-up option not found on other search sites, one that's particularly useful if you're accessing the Web via a slow dial-up connection. AltaVista's Text-Only Search eliminates all graphics from the search and search results pages, which makes things load just that much faster. You activate the Text-Only Search by clicking the More link in the Tools section on the AltaVista home page and then clicking the Text-Only Search link. (Or you can just go to www.altavista.com/web/text/.) As you'll see, this Text-Only Search page is a somewhat simplified version of the regular AltaVista home page.
Continue reading here: Hot Bot at a Glance
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