AltaVista: Required Terms: Part II

[Thomas Dowling]

> It appears that the weird results I got (AltaVista ignoring the "+" sign)
> were due to the browser I was using at the time, although I wouldn't have
> thought it mattered.  At home, I use Lynx (one of these days I'll
purchase
> a PPP account somewhere), and got the weird results.  Here at work, I
tried
> it with Netscape, and the example search "+nesbeitt +library
+bridgewater"
> brought up the correct number of results, 6.   Greg Notess' comment was
> on the mark - this problem appears to be browser-dependent, and
apparently Lynx 
> interprets the + sign as something else.  This was using the latest
version
> of Lynx (2.6?), on a Unix system.  The word order doesn't matter, and no
> odd version of Boolean logic comes into play here - it's just something
> peculiar to Lynx, though for all I know it may happen with other browsers
> as well.

It doesn't seem to be a problem with Lynx per se; I can run the search
correctly in both Lynx 2.5 and Lynx 2.7.  In general, Lynx is one of the
most solid browsers around for straightforward HTTP connections (read the
release notes and see how much Lynx development is aimed at finding
workarounds for Netscape hacks).

If this only happened once, it isn't inconceivable that Alta Vista was
having a bad hair day.  If it happens consistently, I suppose it's possible
that your installation of Lynx is flaky, but I don't exactly see how.

Thomas Dowling
Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu