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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eddie Kim who wrote (33169)	9/21/1998 10:42:00 AM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

Compaq Pledges to Extend AltaVista's Appeal ter@ctive WeekSeptember 21, 1998 Compaq Pledges To Extend AltaVista's Appeal By Charles Babcock When Compaq Computer Corp. announced plans to buy Digital Equipment Corp. at the beginning of 1998, it likely thought that when it was buying one of the best known names on the Internet, the AltaVista search site, it was also buying the associated domain name, www.altavista.com. It wasn't. It didn't take Compaq long to figure that out and do something about it. On Aug.11, it purchased the address for an undisclosed sum from AltaVista Technology Inc. in Campbell, Calif. But that was only a start. Compaq still seems to be sorting out what it wants to do with the search engine that attracts 9.2 million different visitors monthly and early on earned an avid following among office workers for its deep, research-oriented search capabilities. Its index covers 140 million Web pages. "Computer-savvy users show brand loyalty to AltaVista," said Rod Schrock, senior vice president of consumer products. And Compaq pledges loyalty to AltaVista, even though it has never run an online service before. Indeed, Compaq vows to make AltaVista the third most frequently visited site on the Net, up from what RelevantKnowledge Inc. said is 11th place. But how it will get there is not clear. Company officials said the site will not compete with Excite Inc., Lycos Inc. or Yahoo! Inc., three of the top search and directory services. And they were mum on the Business Week report of talks with Yahoo! or Time Warner Inc. about possible joint ventures for the Web or Time Warner's high-speed cable service Road Runner. Compaq will enhance its search capabilities, Schrock said, allowing novice or experienced users to conduct searches in more depth and with more focus. At the same time, Compaq will "evolve its capabilities" as a Web information collection point, giving it broader appeal as a Web destination point. For instance, AltaVista already contains some of the most sophisticated search features available and is the only search engine that can translate text in Web documents from five European languages into English, the company said. Compaq faces a dilemma with AltaVista, said Giga Information Group Inc. analyst Rob Enderle. The more it becomes an attractive entry point to the Internet, the more it threatens to subtract traffic that might have gone to Compaq's site.