Gregg, while I would also find this annoying, I probably like yourself,
am viewing this from an IT professional / hobbyist perspective where the
search reqiurements are global.
However, we are in the minority. Most people on the web are neither IT
professionals or hobbyists and from those that I know, most of their
requirements are regional and global searches are of little or
infrequent use. I dare say that the AV change is in response to this.
IMHO AV was a lousy search engine anyway ;) Like you said, vote with
your and use Google. I'd be surprised if you didn't find Google better
anyway.
:)
Thus spake Gregg ([EMAIL PROTECTED]):
> Not sure why this has gotten so far up my nose but it really has. It is
> another small step towards the 'dumbing down' of the web and computing
> in general. Many of you will think I have far too much free time on my
> hands to be bothered with this but I encourage you to consider it as
> someone who prefers to think for themselves rather than having others
> second guess you.
>
> <RANT>
> For as long as I can remember, I've used the altavista search engine and
> even have (had) it as my 'home page' on my browser because it was
> honest, reliable and useful. The actual url is www.altavista.com but
> they are now redirecting requests to this url to 'country specific'
> sites, in our case, au.altavista.com, where the default search scope is
> sites only within Australia. Sure, you can get a full-scope search by
> clicking a radio button but that's not the point - the default isn't
> changable and I almost never need to search specifically within Oz.
>
> Basically, when I type www.altavista.com, I really want
> www.altavista.com, not something else (otherwise I would have typed
> something else).
>
> I find this insulting and liken it to the annoying "paperclip man" in MS
> Office telling me, "It appears that you're typing a letter...".
> Fortunately we have StarOffice and Linux as alternatives.
>
> This "we'll do the thinking for you" stuff needs to be nipped in the
> bud, not just at Altavista but elsewhere too. Otherwise we might as well
> exclusively use Windows and AOL and accept all things as they are.
> </RANT>
>
> I've voted with my feet (mouse rather) and sent this to Altavista.
>
> gsbme-lx040.gsbme.unsw.edu.au/~greggs/altavista/altavista_bye.jpg
>
> and complained to:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Thanks for listening. Gregg
>
> Their reply:
>
> Dear Valued Member,
>
> Thank you for your inquiry.
>
> Thanks for your mail.
>
> AltaVista has created country specific web sites to provide a better
> search experience to our visitors from outside the US and
> altavista.com.au is one of these sites. From the Australian site you :
>
> ? have access to a local index of almost 10 million Australian pages ?
> which is not available from altavista.com
> ? can search the whole of the index found on .com ? some 550 million
> pages ? just select 'the world wide web' as your search option under the
> search box
> ? can customise your search results ? save them, e-mail them to friends
> or colleagues, and track where you've searched.
>
> For the time being, we will continue to redirect you to the Australian
> site when you visit altavista.com. If you need to visit the US site,
> just click on the 'go to US site' link on the top right of the
> Australian site.
>
> If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.
>
> Sincerely,
> Edwin
> AltaVista Support Team
>
> --
> SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
> More Info: http://slug.org.au/lists/listinfo/slug
--
Cheers,
Craige.
--
SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
More Info: http://slug.org.au/lists/listinfo/slug
