Alta Vista Web Search Engines "Made Confusing"

[Glen Davies]

At a guess I would say that AltaVista have set a time limit on 
searches. When the time limit expires the hits retrieved thus far are 
returned. If you hit search in a quiet period then more results are 
returned as the search will execute quicker.

The developers of the web interface to the Library System at my 
previous position did the above, set a time limit on searches and 
returned only the hits gathered in that time, with no indication to 
the user that it was an incomplete search! They also set a maximum 
limit of 500 results per search without telling the user , very 
confusing for somebody who had been into the library and searched for 
nursing and got 12000 hits but when searching through the web 
interface from their office only get 500.
The main reason they did it was because the web server ground to a halt 
if no limits were set and several people were doing complex searches, 
no doubt alta - vista would do the same.

> 
> I too have had Linda's experience with repeated searches returning
> different results over a brief period of time.
> 
> Does anyone here have a good explanation of this that you use with your
> students/patrons/users when helping them with searches?
> 
> Humorous replies welcome, as well as serious!
> 
> --Dan Ream
>   Head, Instruction & Outreach Services
>   Virginia Commonwealth University Library
>   Richmond, Virginia, USA
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, 9 Nov 1997, Linda Absher wrote:
> 
> > 
> > My two cents:
> > 
> > I recently did a search on AltaVista and came up with no *no* results; I
> > was surprised since I've done the search before on AltaVista and came up
> > with at least five items.  I hit the search button again and got the five;
> > this made me curious so I hit the button again:  this time nine items were
> > retrieved.
> > 
> > Scary....
> > 
> > LInda
> 
> 
***********************************************************
Glen Davies
Information Technology Librarian
Christchurch College of Education
Christchurch
New Zealand
glen at rimu.cce.ac.nz
64-3-343 7737
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"I've been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might
 sober me up to sit in a library" F.Scott Fitzgerald
                                  The Great Gatsby, ch3
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