Now, if it could only find my car keys....
Written: Aug 31 '00
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I may not be the computer savvy, but I do know how to get around the web without pulling my hair out. I have tried several search engines, but I keep coming back to AltaVista for one reason. Results.
I first tried AltaVista because my husband used it all the time. He works at Compaq and AltaVista used to be owned by Compaq. Now, as I understand it, they are owned by another company called CMGI.
The transfer in ownership did not hinder the search engine in the least as far as I can see. You can still type in a few keywords, hit enter and you are given a list of possible matches. I have often typed in simple things like a serial number of an obsolete piece of computer equipment and AltaVista came back with several hits just moments later. Other search engines, such as AskJeeves.com, pale in comparison when it comes to results like these. If I were to type in a serial number only in the search page at AskJeeves.com, I would get a response saying, "I am not sure I understood your question...blah blah blah. Then, I would get a list of possible matches, most of which don't match at all.
AltaVista has the best accuracy I have seen so far. They also have the capability of searching in different languages. I don't speak any other languages, so this is useless to me. AltaVista's default language is 'any language', then English comes next. If you don't remember to hit English, then you could be getting a lot of irrelevant hits in a language you don't understand. I will say in their behalf, that they do have a translation capability on their page that uses the technology called Babel Fish. I have never used it, but my husband has told me that it does work.
On the main page you can find a link to their free ISP. I am sure it is like all the others. An annoying banner on your screen in exchange for their free service. If I am wrong, I apologize.
They have 4 types of search engines on their site.
The first is the one that comes up when you enter their site. Your average search engine with decent accuracy.
The second is their Power Search. This is similar to the first only you can customize things like date, language, domain and specific keywords.
The third is their Advanced Search. You can access MP3, video, image and other files. It also gives you the opportunity to type in a phrase and the search engine will sort through it and pull out the necessary keywords to help match your inquiry. It has a tutorial on the site that teaches you how to type in your keywords and what punctuation to use. For instance, the use of brackets ( ) around certain words will help omit improper hits when combined with other words. Example: (baseball cards and bats) Sports equipment AND NOT(collector cards). This will search for cards and bats and sports equipment but won't search for collector cards. Pretty simple. If you get confused, the tutorial is very helpful.
The fourth is their Raging Search. This is useless to me because it is cumbersome to use. It is a cute idea, you type in your search onto what resembles a little cell phone. It is hard to navigate through the controls. I typed in 'women and sports' and I got '0' hits. I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to be typing so I typed in the word 'John' and came back with 790 hits. It was even more difficult to figure out how to read the hits. When I finally did, I found nothing but a bunch of useless news tidbits. There may have been more, but I didn't stick around to find out.
AltaVista also has lots of quick links to things like shopping, news, music, video, business and entertainment. Most of these links are pretty canned and you can find them on the home page of your ISP. You can, however, sign up for AltaVista Rewards and earn points towards cool things when you shop through the links they have. I don't really shop a lot on the web for full-price merchandise, so most of the links don't really help me.
So, if you want a decent search engine with lots of different ways to search, AltaVista is the one for you. You are bound to find one of their search capabilities useful. It won't however, be able to find your husband's other sock.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
grneyedcwboy
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Member: Teresa Whitaker
Location: LaCygne KS
Reviews written: 107
Trusted by: 100 members
About Me:
I have a tendency to show up here at the strangest times!
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