Changes to AltaVista Searching and the Interface

AltaVista has recently introduced some changes to its interface and searching syntax. The changes are largely cosmetic and are elaborated below.  The search syntax outlined in chapters 5 and 6 is maintained.

Basic Searches

Figure 1 is the search engine interface that is now downloaded in the first instance.

Figure 1
Source: produced with the permission of AltaVista Internet Operations Limited. All rights reserved.

Selecting the small down arrow in the top right corner produces a graphic enabling access to AltaVista servers in other countries, as represented in Figure 2. This is also the new means of restricting searches to particular languages.

Figure 2
Source: produced with the permission of AltaVista Internet Operations Limited. All rights reserved.

The link More Precision, to the right of the Find button, brings up the interface represented by Figure 3.

Figure 3
Source: produced with the permission of AltaVista Internet Operations Limited. All rights reserved.

This does not in fact change the Basic search syntax as outlined in Chapter 5, but provides a different means of achieving the same results. Thus, All these words is a substitute for preceding all components of the search query with a +, this exact phrase is an alternative to including all component of the search query in double quotes, any of these words is the default when the components of the search query are not bounded by any characters, an none of these words, is the equivalent of preceding components of the search query with a -. All of this can be accomplished, as elaborated in Chapter 5, without using this additional interface, which is designed for those interested only in occasional searching.

 Advanced Searches

The Advanced Search interface is divided into two parts. The top part consists of the interface represented by Figure 3 above. To use this, you select the radio button at the top left (not shown in Figure 3). This interface, therefore, provides a sub-basic search facility. The bottom part of the search interface is represented by Figure 4.

Figure 4
Source: produced with the permission of AltaVista Internet Operations Limited. All rights reserved.

 This corresponds largely with the advanced search interface that is represented by Figure 6.1 in Chapter 6. To select this interface for advanced searching, you need to select the radio button at the top left of Figure 4. The search syntax to be used is that outlined in Chapter 6. There are some additions that feature in the bottom part of the graphic represented by Figure 4.

1. You can restrict the search to a specific domain (e.g. edu, net) or country code (e.g. fr, uk); select the link Domain/Country Code Index if you are not familiar with the appropriate codings.

2. You can restrict the search to a particular URL by selecting that radio button and entering it in the box.

3. 'When Site Collapse is on (check box is checked), AltaVista displays a maximum of two results per site. This lets you see many different sites in your results. When Site Collapse is off, AltaVista displays all results from each site, indenting pages from the same site below the first result listed in order of relevance. This makes it easy to see results from deep within sites.'