AltaVista Launching a "Raging Search"?

CNET is reporting that AltaVista is getting ready to launch an advanced search portal. The underlying search technology would be the same, but the page wouldn't have banner ads, and would be more oriented to advanced users. As the story notes, this is clearly a reaction to the increasing popularity of Google, and an effort to win back the power users of AltaVista.

To me this is both a good move and a bad move. It's a bad move because the front page of AltaVista could be cleaned up a great deal and they could avoid weakening their brand by launching another search, especially if they're "use the same underlying search technology that powers AltaVista's primary search engine."

The good move is -- well, I love Google. Right? It's a great product. But I don't want it to sit on its laurels. A little competition will do it good. And as far as full-text search engines are concerned, there are not that many that can actually compete with Google at this point. There's AltaVista, Northern Light, and for the people who have found it and use it, AlltheWeb. Inktomi? Maybe. I want to see their new search infrastructure first. Lycos? Excite@Home? I'm sorry, I don't think so. Maybe they're good portals but to me they're losing their relevance as search engines. HotBot? Three years ago they were the top of the heap. Now, I'm not sure. Their search options are good, but the size of their database concerns me. And what new features have they added lately?

You can read the CNET story at: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1801940.html

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