nasty surprise at AltaVista

[Shirl Kennedy]

Aaaagh!

Just popped over to AltaVista to do a quick search in response to a help-me
message posted on another mailing list (and to distract myself from the
noise of the plumber at work on my bathtub drain...on the weekend, at the
higher "emergency" rates).  Someone was looking for statistics on the
purchasing power of women.  Used the advanced search form and typed in:

women and "purchasing power"

When the results came back, I was horrified to be confronted by a pop-up ad
for Always "feminine hygeine products!  Tried the search again, just to
verify what I had seen.  And there it was again, the dreaded "Always" pop-up
ad!  I can only surmise that it appeared in response to the search term
"women."

Is this something new?

Has anyone else seen an instance of this in response to other search terms
at AltaVista?

Does this mean I now need to disable JavaScript before searching on
AltaVista?

Am I being overly sensitive to be grossed out by this?

Shirl Kennedy
Internet Waves columnist
Information Today
Best Bet Internet
http://www.ala.org/editions/openstacks/bestbet/index.html