AltaVista Advances Internet Search With New Features and Functionality for `Power of Precision' Searching

Business Wire, Nov 12, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 12, 2002

Introduces Daily Refresh of 50% of Search Results Shown,

AltaVista(R) Prisma(TM) Now in Five Languages, Streamlined

Look-and-Feel, and News 2.0

AltaVista Company, a leading global provider of search services and a majority-owned operating company of CMGI, Inc. (Nasdaq:CMGI), today unveiled new features and functionality to advance the Internet search experience and expand the company's core search service to more users. New tools include News 2.0, the next generation of the company's comprehensive news-specific search service, and French, German, Italian and Spanish versions of AltaVista Prisma, the company's powerful assisted search tool which helps users refine their searches and find exactly what they are seeking quickly and easily. AltaVista is combining these tools with other improvements including a new index that delivers unique, highly relevant results; daily refreshes of over 50% of search results shown; and .pdf file search capabilities that deliver on its `Power of Precision' strategy for providing users with one of the best search experiences on the Web.

"With this launch, AltaVista reasserts its leadership position. Over the past six months, we have streamlined our operations and focused 100% on our core business -- and our core strength -- search technology," said Jim Barnett, Chief Executive Officer of AltaVista Company. "We are concentrating on product development with increased functionality including interactive or `assisted search' tools and support for new media types and information sources. In addition, we have improved the freshness of search results significantly and are delivering our best-ever index while continuing to filter superfluous results including duplicate pages, spam and dead links."

New Features and Functionality

-- 50% of displayed search results refreshed daily

-- News 2.0, the next generation of AltaVista's popular news search service, including archived Forbes articles

-- The ability to search documents stored in .pdf file format on web sites

-- AltaVista Shortcut Answers for fast zip code, area code and currency look ups

-- `More Precision' tool to give users more control over their searches

-- Elimination of pop-up and pop-under ads on AltaVista's sites

-- Tracer(TM) ads for even more relevant advertising

-- AltaVista Prisma assisted search tool in four additional languages

Search Basics -- Relevancy, Freshness, Language

While recognizing that the relevancy of results is even more important than index size, AltaVista has crawled over five billion pages and eliminated duplicate pages, dead links and spam to create an even better experience for users. In addition, the company now refreshes over 50% of the search results displayed on a daily basis to give users access to the most up-to-date content, and is introducing an enhanced country-language interface that provides appropriate default country and language settings for users based on their location and browser settings, yet also allows users to change the country and language settings based on their individual needs. AltaVista also lets users select any combination of 26 languages in which to conduct searches. For example, if someone reads German, Italian and English, they can search simultaneously for results written in all three languages. Searchers can use AltaVista's popular Babel Fish Translation tool to help them translate query terms and results using 11 language pairs (such as English/Chinese, French/German and Russian/English).

Comprehensive Data Sources Including Free Full-Text News Search

Building on its commitment to providing comprehensive and relevant information, AltaVista is rolling out version 2.0 of its award-winning News search, with new features and functionality based in large part on user feedback. With over four million fully indexed news articles from 3,000 sources going back over a year, continual discovery of new articles and updates every 15 minutes, News 2.0 is one of the most robust free News search services on the Web. Building on popular features such as `sort by date' and image thumbnails in the results, enhancements to the free service include the ability to search news articles by date, region, topic and by selected sources, as well as access to articles from Forbes going back to 1997. News 2.0 takes advantage of AltaVista Prisma technology to suggest related topics in the news. In addition, audio and video images from News 2.0 will be added to the company's robust multimedia index.

"We asked our users what they wanted in the next generation of our news search, and are thrilled that we were able to implement so many of their suggestions in developing what we believe is the most comprehensive free news search service available today," said Fred Bullock, Chief Marketing Officer for AltaVista. "We offer more news sources and give users greater flexibility in sorting and refining their results. Furthermore, where other free news services may provide archives going back only 30 days, we give users access to stories going back a year (or more) for a greater historical perspective in their research."