Entered CNET Catalog: 04/11/2005
SKU: SERVALTAVISTA
Manufacturer: AltaVista
Product summary
The good: Sleek interface; strong multimedia searches.
The bad: No local search, people finder, or Yellow Pages; no cached pages; easy to confuse sponsored links with actual search results.
The bottom line: This search engine warhorse offers above-average audio and video searches, but Yahoo boasts the same features--and more.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 05/09/2005
AltaVista followed Google's lead and squeezed its old, link-heavy main page into a minimalist yet easy-to-use interface. Gone are the bright yellow colors and dozens of links and features on its home page; now there's only a big blue search box with tabs for Web, Images, MP3/Audio, Video, Directory, and News. Click a tab, and various options appear below the search box, allowing you to narrow your search. For example, under Images, three drop-down menus allow you to filter results by color, source, and size. Searches under MP3/Audio can be filtered by file type (for example, MP3, WAV, WMA) and duration (less or more than a minute). For a graphic artist, this can be very helpful.
AltaVista's search results are par for the course, supplying page names, snippets of text, and a link to pages with similar results. A link to a list of related searches sits on the upper-right corner of the search results page. Image searches come with thumbnails, dimensions, and file size, while audio searches tell you the file type and duration. Video searches through AltaVista return thumbnails--a nice touch, although you'll find the same functionality on Yahoo. News results can be sorted by date and relevance, with language translation links for each hit. Unfortunately, none of the searches lets you call up a cached page, a handy option for finding your results on a frequently updated Web page. We also wish AltaVista did a better job of separating its subtly marked sponsored search results from more neutral findings. While AltaVista does a fine job with straight-ahead searching, it's light on extra features. The downloadable AltaVista toolbar lets you search and translate pages through the Internet Explorer interface. Unfortunately, it won't let you sign in and save your search history. Also, AltaVista lacks local search, mapping, people finder, Yellow Pages, and desktop-indexing features. Its support section doesn't provide detailed search examples, but does include a cursory description of several different categories of available search.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7out of 7 user reviews
Altavista just dropped the audio and video search tabs
Pros: OK for what it is.
Cons: Without the audio and video tabs, Altavista isn't even in the top ten anymore.
out of 7 user reviews
Less is more and this is better in my opinion
Pros: clean interface, uncluttered and good search results
Cons: none that I can find
It has everything I need or want and truly a statement never applied more accurately to the adage that "Less is More"...
I love the clean lines and lack of clutter and consistent search results!
out of 7 user reviews
I used altavista a long time ago
Pros: It used to be the bomb back in the late 90s
Cons: Were they the first to sell clicks?
I went to submit this and got a rate this popup window. Well, at one time I'd rate it best available. Now, since I used altavista.com to search for the history of altavista.com I'd have to give it a wha?
out of 7 user reviews
Altavista is my favorite!
Pros: Contrary to the editors, I find that the Altavista web search or image search works just as well as the audio or video search.
Cons: If you cold save your searches like A9, it would be better.
out of 7 user reviews
Just as good as Google
Pros: Multimedia Searches
Cons: Nothing that I can think off
out of 7 user reviews
Works well, but you can't depend on any one search engine
Pros: gives solid image search results
Cons: Maybe not as "smart "as Google
out of 7 user reviews
Another Victim of Yahoo Crapware
Pros: It Searches
Cons: Yahoo Barfs Behind Proxy Server
Criminy, everywhere you go it's either crapware from Yahoo or crapware from AOL.
Once the URL is sliced and diced and the crap is removed, it works well, but why should I neuter my privacy settings just to let Yahoo monitor my searches. AV used to be an awesome search engine. Too bad it fell into the Yahoo cesspool.
