strange results behavior

[Vladislav S. Davidzon]

It sounds to me like AltaVista appears to be redoing its search
every single time you open the next page.  I know this does not 
sound logical, but I can't seem to find any other explanation 
for this erratic behavior.

Cheers

Vladislav

On Wed, 18 Feb 1998, Sloan, Bernie wrote:

> 
> I see this happen with a fair amount of frequency when searching
> AltaVista. I was doing a search about an hour ago that started
> off showing I had 59 matches, and about the time I got to the
> third or fourth set of matches, all of a sudden it showed I had
> 76 matches.
> 
> Bernie Sloan
> Senior Library Information Systems Consultant
> University of Illinois Office for Planning & Budgeting
> 338 Henry Administration Building
> 506 S. Wright Street
> Urbana, IL  61801
> Phone: (217) 333-4895  
> Fax: (217) 333-6355
> Email: bernies at uillinois.edu
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:	prestam at okway.okstate.edu [SMTP:prestam at okway.okstate.edu]
> > Sent:	Wednesday, February 18, 1998 3:17 PM
> > To:	Multiple recipients of list
> > Subject:	strange results behavior
> > 
> > 
> >      On three occasions over the last four days I have done the following 
> >      searches in Altavista (both basic & advanced search modes):
> >      
> >      link:http://www.library.okstate.edu/dept/sed/prestamo
> >      
> >      I get a large number of hits (but a different number each time), and
> > even 
> >      stranger, when I browse through the results the # of hits changes.
> > For 
> >      example:
> >      
> >         Results:  180   then I click on page 2
> >         Results:  180   then I click on page 3
> >         Results:  172   then I click on page 4
> >         Results:  218   then I click on page 5
> >         Results:   70   then I click on page 6
> >         Results:   64
> >      
> >      I've tried other URLs and similar things happen.  
> >      
> >      Any ideas what's going on?
> >      
> >  
> > ********************************************************************** 
> >      Anne Prestamo, Reference Librarian ||Phone:
> > (405)744-6309 
> >      Science & Engineering Division     ||http://www.library.okstate.edu/ 
> >      Edmon Low Library                  ||    dept/sed/prestamo/anne1.htm 
> >      Oklahoma State University          ||E-mail:
> > prestam at okway.okstate.edu 
> >  
> > ********************************************************************** 
> >      "I worry that the person who thought up Muzak may be thinking up
> >      something else."
> >       --Lily Tomlin
> >  
> > **********************************************************************
> > 
> > 
>