[WEB4LIB] RE: Google and PDF

[Charles P. Hobbs]

Richard Wiggins wrote:

> Hey, Danny, didn't know you were lurking here.  :-)
>
> To me, this falls into the category of "Gee, it might be useful even if it's not in the headlines of Business 2.0 or  Internet.com."  A substantial fraction of the content on the Web is PDF.  AltaVista has long since had tools to index PDF.  So why not do it?  Instead, they concentrate on bragging about things such as "Find an MP3".

Has Altavista added any web sites to its index lately? I've submitted a couple
of sites a few weeks ago, and they have yet to show up.

Altavista, strikes me as being "fat and happy" with their current database, and
(at least until recently) was more interested in adding ads, bells, and whistles
rather than improving the functionality of their search engine. ("Raging Search",
which was Altavista with all the ads, and news headlines and other junk stripped
off, wasn't a basic improvement at all)

Altavista is losing it. And it has the nerve to rattle its saber over patents?
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/16180.html)


>
>
> This is a part of the "invisible Web" that need never have been invisible.  Maybe AltaVista didn't perceive demand for PDF, but they had the technology, and now Google has leapfrogged them at something they could've done in 1997, when Google was a mere glint in Larry Page's eyes.
>
> /rich
>
> ------Original Message------
> From: "Danny Sullivan" <danny at calafia.com>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at webjunction.org>
> Sent: February 7, 2001 11:36:57 PM GMT
> Subject: [WEB4LIB] RE: Google and PDF
>
> I think the main reason you haven't seen PDF at AltaVista or the others
> isn't a lack of know how but rather a lack of interest.
>
> cheers,
> danny
>
> -----------------------------------
> Danny Sullivan
> Editor, SearchEngineWatch.com
> http://searchenginewatch.com
> __________________________________________________
> Richard Wiggins
> Consulting, Writing & Training on Internet Topics
> http://www.netfact.com/rww  wiggins at mail.com
> 517-349-6919 (home office)  517-353-4955 (work)
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--
Charles P. Hobbs
King Drew Health Science Library
http://www.cdrewu.edu/kdhsl