AltaVista to close on July 8

[Solitaire]

"Dad, what was AltaVista?"
"Google it, son."

"Ask Jeeves!"

 

[theprestige]

Dogpile still does that.

So it basically dilutes Google search results in a mixture of lower-quality search results?

 

[Caper]

Wow... takes me back.

I remember using that and yahoo.... the search results were just pages and pages of ads. I heard of google... but like most things I was the last to start using it.... I could not believe you could actually find what you were looking for.

 

[Caper]

I think my first go-to search engine was Webcrawler in the mid-nineties. I occasionally remember using alta vista as well. Soon enough made the move to Yahoo, and eventually to Google.

A couple of friends were talking the other day about this push by Bing to get Google users. One of them had it right, I think. They said "even if Bing is better, it's over man. It's too late. Google is an adjective for crying out loud. 'I'm going to Bing it' just doesn't sound the same. It's over."

Bing drives me nuts.... I'm sure it's ok.... but I just feel like a traitor now... plus bing for a while was setting their page as default.... installing search bars, ect (can't say for sure the company (or parent company) was behind it... but it started driving me crazy.... it also looks and displays a lot like google.

 

[John Jones]

So it basically dilutes Google search results in a mixture of lower-quality search results?

Geez. What DO you like?

 

[theprestige]

Geez. What DO you like?

Google Search.

Clean interface, consistently good results, and a business model that doesn't involve scraping other people's IP. What's not to like?

But I live in the US. Maybe it's different in other markets? Is Dogpile big in Japan?

 

[abaddon]

Bing drives me nuts.... I'm sure it's ok.... but I just feel like a traitor now... plus bing for a while was setting their page as default.... installing search bars, ect (can't say for sure the company (or parent company) was behind it... but it started driving me crazy.... it also looks and displays a lot like google.

Bing is probably an OK search engine, yet I cannot define why it irritates me so much. I leave that as an open question. I can't answer it. Bing just gets on my wick and I have no idea why.

 

[RSLancastr]

AltaVista was my search engine of choice back in the late 90s. I even linked to it from every "exhibit" page on my old playing card web site, to let visitors to my site "Search the web for more [the exhibit's theme] pages!"

Didn't even know it was still a going concern, having switched to Yahoo and then to Google many years ago.

 

[SezMe]

Bing is probably an OK search engine, yet I cannot define why it irritates me so much. I leave that as an open question. I can't answer it. Bing just gets on my wick and I have no idea why.

When Bing first came out I happened on a review that asserted that Bing was more oriented to business-to-business results. I don't remember how. But maybe that could relate to you unease.

 

[Quinn]

A couple of friends were talking the other day about this push by Bing to get Google users. One of them had it right, I think. They said "even if Bing is better, it's over man. It's too late. Google is an adjective for crying out loud. 'I'm going to Bing it' just doesn't sound the same. It's over."

Apart from the nitpick that I'm pretty sure they meant to call it a verb rather than an adjective, I agree. Google is the Kleenex of search engines.

 

[Ian Osborne]

I remember using that and yahoo.... the search results were just pages and pages of ads. I heard of google... but like most things I was the last to start using it.... I could not believe you could actually find what you were looking for.

I discovered Google after reading about it in a Time magazine round-up. I never looked back.

 

[abaddon]

And today is the day. Altavista used to be my go to search engine. Nostalgic to see it depart. I wonder what the corporate yahoo's who contributed to that and what they think of the success that is the ubiquitous google, these days?