The AltaVista Search Revolution

The book is now only of historical interest. After all, you are not going to actually get this book, to teach you how to use AltaVista, are you? Written in 96-7, it describes what was then the best search engine on the Web. It shows how to use it. AltaVista had some nifty features. Like the clustering of results, according to broad topic meaning. Plus there was babelfish, for machine translation of written text. This could be done in several major languages. Of course, we know what happened soon thereafter. Google burst on the scene, with a functional mapping of the idea behind the Science Citation Index onto web pages. This blew away Altavista. Another reason this book is of historical interest is that Altavista was basically DEC's last major effort, that was briefly successful. A swansong for DEC, in some ways. What the book does not say, because this came after publication, is that when DEC was bought by Compaq, there was talk of Altavista going public. This was at the height of the dot com era. But through various delays, and Google's rapid rise, that never came about.

This book is very cool for people that are both new to the web as well as for those that have been on for like four years now. There are definitly things in it that will teach everyone something cool and useful about the web. You will be a far better web searcher and sufer after reading this--I keeep it close to my PC!

Of course, the AltaVista site itslf has a help page which tells how to use its many features to best advantage. But help pages are typically terse, and most people find them unfriendly. You really can't study a subject comfortably or at odd times from a computer screen. Enter this book, "The AltaVista Search Revolution: How to Find Anything on the Internet." It thoroughly explains the ins and outs of using AltaVista, with practical advice and real-world examples. Starting with the basics, it tells you how to get to AltaVista through your web browser. It shows the AltaVista home page, and explains its various parts. Then you're guided through the process of making a simple search, and refining your search with the various tools available in AltaVista. Good examples are shown for each step of the way. The next chapter covers the so-called advanced search, which allows even further narrowing of searching parameters. Again, you're shown the page that launches the advanced search, its parts, and well-chosen examples of how to use it. Extensive Tips and Notes keep the text interesting and lively. It's clearly explained under what conditions you'd want to do a simple search, and when an advanced search. A further chapter goes over the same ground, but for searching newsgroups instead of web pages. Both simple and advanced newsgroup searches are covered. Finally, one chapter explains how AltaVista actually searches and lists found web pages and newsgroups. This information is useful for webmasters (people who create the web pages) who'd like their pages to be found or listed in specific ways. That detailed information about AltaVista takes up about half the book. The remaining half is devoted to an entertaining "A to Z Reference," listing by letter some typical sample searches, refinements, and tips on how to search for a multitude of topics on the Worldwide Web. Starting with "acquaintances", and going through "baseball cards", "canine", "dance", etc. to "zoo", you're led on a wild and eclectic tour of the amazing diversity of material available on the web. Conclusion AltaVista is one of the most far-reaching information retrieval tools ever made available to the general public. The AltaVista Search Revolution explains in clear and simple language, and in an open, lively style, how to perform accurate, efficient, effective, and fruitful searches using AltaVista.