AltaVista Case-Sensitive??

[ihelpyou]

Me thinks NOT.

It amazes me how many forums I see out there and how many software programs I see out there that report AltaVista is case-sensitive in search results.

How does everyone else feel about this?

I will give some examples:

Do a search for these terms:

search engine optimization
free site submissions
search engine submissions

How many top 10 have the phrases in all upper-case only in the title tag??

NOT many.

There are many other examples of this with many different terms.

One program I know that touts this is the one by GRsoftware and academy of web specialists. Robin Nobles updates the search engine info for it while GRsoftware developed the program. It is called GRDA or something like that and is widely used by SEO's and others.

Except me that is. :)

I have a demo version of the software, and disagree with almost ALL of their recommendations for changes.

ON many forums this is touted also. I see it all the time with the comments NOT corrected or anything.

Am I missing something here?

Don't think so.

It blows me away also how many tout to optimize pages for EACH search engine based on the algos for the engine.

I have NEVER done this for ANY site including my own. ONE set of optimization works for ALL.

Thoughts? Comments? Observations? Debate? Criticizim?

Come-on...... give it to me. :scattered

[JuniorHarris]

Well, the notes I recorded say AltaVista is case sensitive. However, this was based on old research, prior to Scooter running on leaded petroleum and using the new [ugly] results page. So I would not / could not really comment on the case sensitivity issue without further research.

However I will add that I do not target optimize for any specific engine. I suppose it may be necessary for very competitive listings, but one must carefully consider the overhead of maintaining each engine specific page, as well as being careful to exclude other engines so the pages will not be flagged as duplicate. This may work well for low content sites, where even 10 unique pages could result in over 100 engine specific pages if 10 search engines were targeted.

Typically one optimized size fits well for most engines for us!~

:umbre:

[ihelpyou]

Good points JH. I am never cared about alta being case-senstive and ranks always fall into place.

Yes, optimizing for all sites is always easier. If a site is targeting too general or popular keyword, they should narrow their focus anyway.

Lots of hits on targeted phrases is much better than too popular or general and getting very few ranks or hits.

Only way to get ranks on real popular phrases is to "trick" the engines anyway. Then you run the risk of banning. So, what's the point then?

[ihelpyou]

Unlike other forums, I love real good live debate.

So, anyone out there who loves it also, please jump right in. As long as there is no flaming of other members, there are NO HOLDS BARRED in here.

I like different opinions on everything. This is a good way for all to learn.

[JuniorHarris]

I've been seeing much activity in the logs from both Scooter and Mercator. Scooter seems to feed the main database we are all familiar with, however according to Compaq (http://research.compaq.com/SRC/mercator/) Mercator has been transferred to AltaVista and is part of Altavista Search Engine 3 (http://solutions.altavista.com/). Has anyone received any traffic from this source? The listings appear to be current, but the application appears unfinished as images fail to load and scripting errors occur.

[ihelpyou]

No activity here but some very good information!

[highman]

Thoughts? Comments? Observations? Debate? Criticizim?

Come-on...... give it to me.

YOUR WRONG!
:debate:

AltaVista is case-sensitive in search results

there....... you asked for it

[ihelpyou]

huh?

I am still seeing the same results when doing a search in caps and lower case.

[highman]

Doug, I owe you half an apology, when i carried out my first search these are the 2 results:

http://uk.altavista.com/q?pg=q&q=tree+trunks&kl=XX&what=web&mm=1

http://uk.altavista.com/q?pg=q&q=TREE+TRUNKS&kl=XX&what=web&search.x=23&search.y=8

After reading your reply I have relealised that AV did its occasional redirect to AV.co.uk which is indeed case sensitive.
Now looking at AV.com it appears that it is not case sensitive as you originaly said.

So here is half an apology :)

there now we know something else

[ihelpyou]

The UK is still using case-sensitive? Wonder why? Kind of strange to have a big difference like that.....

[bigDugan]

AltaVista is case-sensitive in search results

I'm not so sure it's true any more, but I DO know for a FACT that in the past, my AV ranking was directly affected by whether I used capitalization in my page title or not.

When I used all lower case in my page title, I ranked #1, but when I capitalized the first letters of my page title, I dropped to #2. And when I went back to all lower case, I was #1 again.

But I'm like so many others, and do not optimize for just one engine, and prefer to use upper and lower case in my titile, as I think it "looks better".

[ihelpyou]

Well BigD, surprisingly, many do try to optimize for each engine by using doorway pages, etc. I simply feel all the extra time and money involved is just not worth it.

Yea, AV is not case-sensitive right now, but who knows what they might be tomorrow? :) UK is still.

[ihelpyou]

Well, a moderator at the other place just posted that AltaVista IS case-sensitive.

Are you all seeing something that I do not see? Am I losing it?

They were a few months ago, but I see no difference right now.

[ihelpyou]

I just did a search using his example of Midi and midi

Funny, but the results are the same in either case. Seems like NOT case-sensitive to me....

We will see how long it takes for his statement to be corrected.

[JuniorHarris]

AltaVista has transgressed many changes over the past months, and YES at one time AV was case sensitive. However it does appear that this has changed, probably about the time they added that new ghastly interface they now sport.

I have not read the other post, but hopefully it's simply a mistake based on older information. Which I would say just a few months ago may still have been true. <note my earlier post>

[Advisor]

AltaVista has always been case sensitive in the past. I know this for a fact. I haven't checked them lately, but from what Doug says, it sounds like they may have made some changes. But if you're reading other people talking about it's case sensitiveness, that is because it has always been true (possibly up to now).

Jill

[ihelpyou]

AV has been NOT case-sensitive since the date of the first post in this thread.

July 4




NOT

[Advisor]

July 4...my favorite date. Did you know those fireworks are for me?

J

[ihelpyou]

Is that your Bday? I will remember it next year. :)

[Advisor]

Yep, at least that's what it says in my profile!

J