Basic Web search tips
AltaVista invites you to search its digital content collection containing billions of Web pages, data resources and multimedia files by simply typing a query and clicking the Search button.
- When you type multiple words in the search box, AltaVista looks for Web pages that contain all of the words.
- Be as specific as you can. (Example: Baltimore Ravens instead of just Ravens)
- Enter words that you think will appear on the Web page you want. AltaVista indexes all of the words on each Web page.
- To search for an exact phrase, put it in quotes (Example: "to be or not to be").
- Uppercase and lowercase are treated the same. To maintain a certain capitalization, put the word in quotes.
- Words with punctuation between them are treated as if they are surrounded in quotes. All punctuation marks are treated equally.
(Example: Ford.mustang/convertible gives the same results as "ford mustang convertible".)
- If you get results in other languages, either Translate the Web pages or select your preferred language in the search box menu.
- If you include an accent in a query word, AltaVista only matches words with that particular accent. If you do not include an accent, AltaVista will match words both with and without accents. This means you can search for French, German or Spanish words, even if you have an English-only keyboard.
To help focus your search further, use Advanced Web Search or Special search terms.
Types of Web results
Doing different types of searches
AltaVista's search tabs, located on top of the search box, allow you to instantly search in different areas: Web, Images, Audio, Video, Directory or News.
To try a different type of search, just click a tab. AltaVista takes the words that are currently in the search box and automatically perform the search for you. (Sorry, this doesn't work on all browsers.)
Features in your Web search results page
Translate: This link lets you easily translate a Web page into any of nine languages. When you translate a page, AltaVista automatically translates all of the pages you link to from that page.
More pages from [this site]: When a site contains multiple pages that closely match your query, clicking on this link lets you see all of them.If a second page is very close in relevance to the first page, AltaVista automatically shows the second page indented below the first one.
PDF files: AltaVista searches various types of files in response to your queries. When a relevant PDF file is found you will see a note saying "File Format: PDF" and a link to easily download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software, which is required to view a PDF file.
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