AltaVista Discovery

AltaVista has released a software tool called AltaVista Discovery that combines web wide and desktop search into one package.

The program runs as a small toolbar that attaches to the browser. Among the features that may appeal to web searchers are Hit Highlighting, Similar Pages, Referring Pages and More Pages.

With Hit Highlighting, Discovery will display a web page found through a search with the query words highlighted, which makes it easier to spot relevant portions.

With Similar Pages, Discovery examines the content of the page being viewed and tries to locate similar ones via AltaVista.

Referring Pages displays a list of all pages linking to a particular page, while More Pages displays a list of all pages from the same site. Both functions can be carried out using AltaVista's power commands, but Discovery makes them an easy, push button option ideal for novices.

Discovery also has the ability to search for information on a user's computer. It can scan for matches in a wide-variety of file types on your computer, or within popular email programs.