AltaVista: Required Terms: Part II

[Charles Bearden - Cataloging]

Like Doug Cornwell and Thomas Dowling, I got the same results in both 
Lynx 2.6 and Netscape 3.0, only I got 33 documents.  I'm not sure why I 
didn't get only 6 docs, but for me Lynx 2.6 clearly didn't disregard the 
"+".  

There are quite a number of options to be exercised when compiling Lynx.  
Perhaps the crux of the problem lies there.  

Chuck
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Chuck Bearden			email: cbearden at hpl.lib.tx.us
Catalog Department		voice: 713/247-3499
Houston Public Library		fax:   713/247-3158
500 McKinney Ave.
Houston, TX  77002		
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On Tue, 25 Mar 1997, Sarah Nesbeitt, Maxwell Library wrote:

> 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.
> 
> >From now on, I'll stick to the Advanced Query screen when using AltaVista
> from Lynx.
> 
> Sarah
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Sarah L. Nesbeitt                        
> Reference Librarian                      E-mail: snesbeitt at bridgew.edu
> The Clement C. Maxwell Library                   nesbeitt at alumni.sils.umich.edu
> Bridgewater State College                Voice:  (508) 279-6153
> Bridgewater, MA  02325  USA
> 
>