mayor - 4:05 pm on Feb 21, 2002 (gmt 0)

It wasn't all that long ago that Alta Vista ended free Internet access.

I hate to see them taking one more step down the ladder.

Only a few short months ago they were the power house of the search world, and the crown jewels of CMGI. Now it looks like they're about to fade off the radar screen ... a shrinking blip disappearing into the abyss that consumed Infoseek/Go and Excite.

I'll bet their paid-inclusion program is one of their last hurrahs. And I'll bet they're finding out that if you ask people to pay, you have to give them their money's worth in traffic in return.