Altavista?!

Are they really going to keep going and if so why?

[surfgatinho]

From being maybe THE major search engine to relative obscurity is quite a feat, but they really have become quite obscure.
I'm getting about 1% or less of my referrals from AV and after looking I can see why.
After looking for - area_name web design town_name - the results that appeared where:
1. A local information portal
2. A hotel site
3. Another hotel site
4. Finally a site that has some relevance to web design
5. A holiday cottage site

and so on.
I've got sites that rank in the top 5 on Google, ATW and Inktomi powered searches - can't find them an AV.
It seems that unless AV sorts out it's algos it's not going to be around much longer.

[Terrier]

1% that IMHO is a good referral rate!

I don’t think it’s as much to do with the alogo as that they have been forgotten as a SE.

[BigFish]

What an incredible turnaround. When I was still a teen, Altavista dominated - maybe even above yahoo and excite as far as SE's went.

I stopped being online and using SE's for much of my college/late high school life - and now I come out and has a job doing this sh!t, to see Google completely dominate and altavista not getting a sniff. Crazy.

What happened?!?!?!

[Bobby_Davro]

I am seeing massive amounts of spidering from Altavista across several sites. Hopefully this signals a renewed effort to improve the index.

[rfgdxm1]

>I am seeing massive amounts of spidering from Altavista across several sites. Hopefully this signals a renewed effort to improve the index.

Altavista needs to do *something* to get people to want to use them. Otherwise, they probably are doomed.

[Marcia]

What's to stop Yahoo from using whichever search they will on their site and linking to their other search properties at the bottom of pages for people to search at in addition?

Alta Vista may still have possibilities ahead.

[mcavic]

linking to their other search properties at the bottom of pages for people to search at in addition

Yahoo used to do this... They had a bar at the bottom that said something like [Google - Altavista - Hotbot - Lycos].

[Receptional]

I heard that Overture bought AV to test certain PFI ideas. But they probably hadn't bet on being bought by Yahoo themselves at that time. That puts AV out on a limb.

But AV has some good technologies - there is always babelfish... which I would buy if anyone were to sell it to me. (I have a few farthings around here somewhere).

[rfgdxm1]

>Alta Vista may still have possibilities ahead.

It also occurs to me that Yahoo might merge Altavista and Alltheweb, and put that up at altavista.com. Altavista does have some brand recogniztion, ATW doesn't.

[Brad]

The AV SERP's look pretty good to me, best in years. I hope they can keep it around. Maybe they will merge the two.

>>linking to their other search properties at the bottom of pages for people to search at in addition?

I do not think 98% of searchers ever use those, but they sure are handy when you strike out. And on a property as heavily searched as Y! the remaining 2% is pretty significant.

[uber_boy]

I don't think anyone should view the presence of AV's bots as an indication of any turnaround strategy. I thought this myself on a couple of occasions when they came to drink from the trough and stayed a long, long while. But months later, I still wasn't noticing any increase in the low number of referrals I was getting from AV before the visit. So as far as I'm concerned, AV is on autopilot. I'ts probably generating enough money to cover its operating expenses but, without an R&D budget, is simply coasting until it ultimately bleeds to death...