AltaVista
AltaVista's strength is its advanced search capabilities: For sheer power and flexibility, you can't beat it. Unfortunately, AltaVista's content isn't fresh enough to make it a first-choice search engine.
AltaVista offers extensive advanced query options, including field searching and full Boolean support. The power search page lets you create complex searches either manually or using radio buttons and drop-down lists. AltaVista also offers the Babelfish document-translation service.
One of AltaVista's weaknesses is database freshness. During our testing, we often found hits that were no longer relevant, because the page had changed since it was crawled. AltaVista generally does better on specific searches, though it can't quite match the relevance of some of the other engines tested, such as Northern Light. Fortunately, the result page often has useful extras that can boost the quality of the results, such as related searches and recommended sites from the LookSmart directory. If you're looking for information on broad topics, such as online mortgages, don't bother -- you'll have better luck at About. If you like AltaVista's search, consider the stripped-down version, Raging Search, reviewed later in this story.
Direct Link: AltaVista
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