I am a big fan of Altavista. does anybody likes it? i want to know more personal experience. plz don't compare with the Big G.
Back in the day I think I paid for a listing. Do they still do that? Anyways, no I only focus on the main 3 and let all others do what ever they do. btw, I saw no results from my paid submission.
I don't think that a search engine only important in the terms of paid listing. It is all about your demands. if it completes them then it is a good SE just according to me.
They do not do paid listings anymore. They are part of Yahoo and use the Yahoo database for results (AltaVista is just basically a front-end for Yahoo results). As Yahoo discontinued paid inclusion feeds at the end of 2009, that means they are also no longer within AltaVista. Also, as far as paid inclusion, it was used by most big companies (at least those that knew about it and knew the power and how to work it) for absolutely the BEST return on investment in the industry. It is a shame that it is now gone. Please note that paid inclusion is completely different than paying to be just included in their index (much like what EntireWeb.com still offers for $29 a year). I still love it as I am a bit nostalgic, but it is really just Yahoo you are searching with a AltaVista logo...
It's nostalgia value for me too. Ask is also a site I visit sometimes, even though it's fared far better than AltaVista.
I only ever use the language translator that they offer, Babelfish (but not the actual search engine).
I still use Ask.com too.... Babelfish was great! I tend to use Google Translator now. Yeah, those were the days when there more search engine options for us.