Thanks for the support.
RE: portals vs. search engines. I couldn't disagree more. Search engines provide a specialized function -- a very valuable function, but limited nonetheless. A portal provides a superset of search engine functionality (i.e a search engine plus much more).
An issue of specialization. Yes, portals usually have some form of search engine, but so far I have yet to find one that allow me to make as specialized searches as I can with AltaVista. Granted, most people probably don't know how to use this to the full but that is just a matter of time, I think.
Let me give you an example: Try searching for an mp3 tune with an artist you know, say "Beatles" just for the example. You can remember that it's something about "darling", "love" and possible "money". Try searching for that on Lycos - I am sure you will find a lot of sex sites. Try instead this on AltaVista: "+mp3 +Beatles -xxx -sex darling love money". You can go even further using the Boolean search methods, but let's leave this for now.
On top of that, when I click "AltaVista" on my bookmarks I get straight to the search interface. No need to wait for a page full of stuff I don't need to download.
If you think about it, why wouldn't I go to a web page where I can see real-time stock indexes, headlines, personalized news, sports score, e-mail.... AND a kick-butt search engine?
Well, again as above - most combo's don't have a kick-butt search engine. And to stay somewhat on topic, if I want info on stocks I don't go to a portal "for the masses" but to one of the many websites I have found over the years who are dedicated to precisely the topic/stock that I'm interested in.
Haven't AOL, Yahoo! and Lycos validated this concept? What dynamic will take place that will spur people to want to shed those free extras? Would you want to go to AltaVista and search on stock prices, then search on news, then search on your specialized topic? That doesn't make sense to me at all.
I don't think the web world has settled yet. Yes, AOL and the others still have a lot of clicks, but we're still very much in the infancy of the Internet revolution.
AV may be a better search engine -- that's something we can all debate with valid opinions until the cows come home (sorry, I'll save that for the Gateway thread!), but is it THAT much better? That is, AltaVista's search engine power/functionality is so compelling that I'd make it my home page instead of Lycos? (or Yahoo! for that matter -- I'm not being CMGI-centric on this point.) I find that a dubious proposition...
Home page? Who needs a home page? In my browser I have "Blank page" as my home page. No need to go download something I don't need. When I (re-)start my browser (which is not often, it's usually always on) I usually know exactly where I want to go - and it's rarely to a portal.
Granted, I use Yahoo News from time to time, but that is just to get quick headlines not to use any of the other - for me - unnecessary stuff available there. |
