AltaVista

History

2013: Termination of work

On July 8, 2013 the search system AltaVista stopped work.

2011: Transition to search technology of Yahoo

Since May, 2011 AltaVista passed to search technology of Yahoo!.

2003: Purchase by Overture Services company

In February, 2003 AltaVista was purchased by Overture Services, Inc. which, in turn, in July, 2003 was purchased by Yahoo!.

1999: Acquisition of 83% of stocks of AltaVista by CMGI corporation

In June, 1999 negotiations of Compaq and CMGI corporation on formation of strategic network alliance within which AltaVista was sold to CMGI began. On August 19, 1999 it was announced acquisition by CMGI corporation at Compaq of 83% of stocks of AltaVista.

1998

In top-20 Internet giant by the Internet audience size

The Internet companies by the audience size

Purchase by Compaq corporation

In August, 1998 the search system was redeemed by Compaq corporation for 3.35 million dollars that was the largest transaction of this sort at that time. At the same time the address of the search system remained the same — altavista.digital.com.

Compaq spent a lot of time and forces on search of opportunities to make the profitable project of AltaVista, but was not succeeded to perform it.

1995

Support by the DEC Alpha server

For December, 1995 AltaVista was supported by the most powerful the computing server available at that time — the 64-bit DEC Alpha server. It was the fastest search system which could process millions of search queries a day.

Inclusion of search of a natural language was an important innovation of AltaVista. Users could print a phrase or a question and to receive the intellectual answer.

Availability to users

Developed by AltaVista Technology AltaVista corporation it was sold to Digital Equipment Corporation company which specialists significantly improved it and made available to users in November, 1995.^[1]

Notes