AltaVista will announce a new search and navigation platform that provides power searching, one-click access to customised search centres, such as its new Entertainment Centre, and an E-mail and Tools productivity application section.
The consumer portal's Power Search, a guided approach to Advanced Search, is intended for less-experienced and novice users. It's described by AltaVista officials as an easy, menu-driven interface that produces the most relevant search results. Drop-down menus enable users to search through parameters such as date, time, country and language while giving them several ways to customise a search and arrange results.
"Power Search is Advanced Search with training wheels," said Vaughn Rhodes, AltaVista's director of product marketing. "We're making Advanced Search accessible to the masses. ... It's a powerful way for users to quickly narrow down information without having to wade through it."
Two other enhancements on the way are Search Trends and Search Guides.
Search Trends show the week's top 25 search terms; top five lists of CDs, DVDs and other popular categories; and interesting search queries from a year ago, all based on AltaVista's query logs. Search Guides contain tips on how to search for Web sites, products, and images and how to use the tools that AltaVista makes available.
To better target searches on its own site, AltaVista has also created a vertical entertainment service to search across audio/MP3, video, radio, images and Web pages. The company has an index of 35 million audio, video and images files, and 6,000 broadcast and Internet radio streams.
"It's a new search experience with a new tab structure," said Andre Herring, senior manager of entertainment. "We've built a nice mix of search and compelling content around entertainment."
AltaVista has forged strategic alliances with iCAST, Rhino Records and World Entertainment Network and will offer original editorial content and interviews with top artists and columns from entertainment authorities, officials said.
A streamlined interface gives users a snapshot of their search results, and they can select a special search box to determine format/file type, clip duration and data source, officials added.
