Last updated April 4, 2007

AltaVista Search Engine

We prefer the AltaVista search engine because of its easy phrase usage. Google and most other search engines search only on the words you enter and you cannot search for phrases.

For example, we did this search on July 12, 2008. The words trademark infringement motion for summary judgment.

Google Sreach using trademark infringement motion for summary judgment

Returned about 100,00 hits. A mish-mosh. The 4th one on page one included "trademark issues". The 5th one on page one inclded a "summary of Union Pacific".

AltaVista Sreach using trademark infringement motion for summary judgment

Returned about 538,000 hits. A mish-mosh.

AltaVista Sreach using +"trademark infringement" and +"motion for summary judgment"

Returned about 68,000 hits all with the phrases we wanted.

Placing a phrase in quotes has this search engine look for that phrase. You can search for more than one phrase. If there is a word or phrase you want includes on every hit, you place a "+" in front of it. Yo can seacrh for more than one phrase at a time or a combination of phrases and words. Also, say you see a pattern in the hits you want to exclude. Say you want to exclude Florida. Place a minus sign in front of the word Florida and AltaVista excludes any hits with the word Florida in them.

Much better for legal searchs than Google.