AltaVista Unveils The Most Powerful and Useful Guide to the Internet; Navigating the Internet Becomes Easier, Faster, and Family Friendly with an Array of Advanced AltaVista Technologies.

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 13, 1998--AltaVista, a division of Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE:CPQ), today unveiled a major update to its popular AltaVista Internet guide (www.altavista.com and www.av.com)(1). For the firstd power and ease of use to make navigating the Internet relevant, fast, effective, and family friendly for Web users of all computing proficiency levels.

The new AltaVista features AV Full View Searching, a simple and seamless combination of the three main search techniques -- index search, directory search, and question-and-answer search -- to cover the fullest range of users' Web navigation needs. AV Full View Searching uniquely delivers Ask AltaVista. This new capability allows Web navigators to get immediate help from an AltaVista "librarian" by asking questions in simple English and getting the single, most relevant answer.

The new AltaVista site also offers in-depth multimedia search capability with AV Photo Finder, delivering powerful navigation of more than 10 million Internet pictures. In addition, AltaVista is introducing the innovative AV Family Filter, which allows users to automatically filter out offensive material while they search the Internet. Finally, the AltaVista site now includes the industry-leading AV Ease & Relevance Architecture, a collection of five new techniques that make searching considerably easier and more precise.

"We are tremendously excited to deliver the most significant update to AltaVista since its inception. The new AltaVista site makes navigating the Internet both powerful and useful, a combination important to Internet users of all proficiency levels," said Rod Schrock, Senior Vice President and Group General Manager, Consumer Products. "This new site is clean, simple, relevant and to the point -- it makes navigating the Internet more effective than ever before. We expect it to have great consumer appeal that will ensure the rapid, continued growth of AltaVista."

Find it Your Way with AV Full View Searching

AltaVista is the first Internet guide to seamlessly combine all natural methods of information searching. Just like visiting a library, AltaVista users can look through a "card catalog" using the power of AltaVista's 140 million Web page index. Or, users can go right to their main topic of interest with the new AltaVista Category search, like going straight to the history aisle of a library. Finally, using the exciting new Ask AltaVista feature is as easy as asking for help from a librarian. With AV Full View Searching, users can choose whatever search method they prefer to quickly find the information they need.

Ask AltaVista to Get a Better Answer

Ask AltaVista takes users' plain English questions and returns the single best answer on the Internet. It uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology in combination with a human-engineered knowledge base of six million questions to best understand the user's request and provide the single highest quality answer. To do this, research editors have pre-searched the Internet to hand-pick Web sites that best answer users' most popular questions.

For example, if you type in the question: "What is the weather in San Francisco?" Ask AltaVista returns a site which best answers this question. User testing has shown that putting a few simple, targeted questions and answers at the top of the search results page helps users who may otherwise be overwhelmed by the power of the AltaVista search engine. The knowledge base and a large portion of the NLP technology was developed by Ask Jeeves, Inc.

Expand Your Internet with Multimedia Search

Today AltaVista introduces revolutionary visual search capabilities with AV Photo Finder, providing access to one of the largest image indexes on the Web. AV Photo Finder incorporates more than 10 million distinct images, including black & white and color photos, illustrations, and other artwork.

AV Photo Finder is as simple and easy to use as routine topic searches. Users type a request and results are immediately delivered as thumbnail sketches ranked by relevance. By clicking on the photograph or graphic of their choice, users link to the image or the image's homepage for viewing. Users can choose to search the entire Web or limit their search to premiere collections.

AV Photo Finder, developed in partnership with Virage, Inc., provides users supplementary background information on images, including title, image size, and a brief description. The feature also includes an option that lets users link to a page of images or photos visually similar to the selected image or photo.

Enjoy the Internet in Safety

The new AltaVista Family Filter automatically filters objectionable material, such as pornography and hate- or violence-related materials, while users search the Internet without limiting AltaVista's power and usefulness. Designed with three levels of protection, AV Family Filter first checks to see if the page belongs to an objectionable category as identified by AltaVista's automated categorization technology. AV Family Filter then reviews information through a proprietary automated filtering process developed in partnership with SurfWatch Software, an industry leader in content filtering. AltaVista also incorporates editorial filtering, giving users the power to help identify potentially objectionable pages which they can submit to AltaVista. After research editors conduct a review, AltaVista tags the specific pages for filtering.

For further protection, AltaVista users can set AV Family Filter as a password-protected default, giving families added Internet security. In addition, AltaVista has pre-set the AV Family Filter as the default option for the AV Photo Finder as a precaution for our users. Only AltaVista provides such thorough filtering of the largest search index of the Web. AV Family Filter also is the only service to provide filtered search technology compatible with client-side filtering software.

Get Better Results with the AV Ease & Relevance Architecture

To further enhance the search experience, AltaVista has introduced five exciting new techniques, which are the foundation of its AV Ease & Relevance Architecture.

AltaVista Recommends takes the power of Ask AltaVista to the next level, connecting the user to additional Web sites relevant to the initial request. In addition to suggesting a single site that precisely answers a specific question, AltaVista Recommends offers a selection of related "AV Categories" Web pages with links to many high quality sites handpicked by editors.

AV On-Target technology selects the highest quality Web sites matching a given request and pushes them to the first index results page.

AltaVista Phrase Detection technology helps AltaVista understand plain language by recognizing millions of commonly used phrases frequently used in Internet searches. Now users no longer have to manually identify phrases to find exactly what they're looking for. For example, users who type in New York will now get results focused on the city of New York, rather than thousands of Web pages including "new" and "york." AV Phrase Dictionary includes famous people, movie titles, technical terms, and other commonly used phrases.

AltaVista Spell Check helps users who accidentally misspell a word in the search box find what they need. AV Spell Check gently prompts users - in English, French, Spanish, or Italian - to consider alternate spellings of their query when a misspelling is detected.

AltaVista Tools & Gadgets provides a single, convenient place to find exciting interactive services that are often buried and difficult to locate within large Web sites. AltaVista is working with a wide range of partners to provide easy access to the most useful and popular Web "gadgets."

Together, the new technologies in the AV Ease & Relevance Architecture achieve two key goals: -- Reasserting AltaVista's leadership in the most powerful and advanced search technologies on the Internet -- Aggressively extending AltaVista with new ease-of-use improvements important to novice users.

Getting to AltaVista is Easier Than Ever

Today, going to AltaVista to exploit its power and capabilities is easier than ever before. The new AltaVista Internet guide is available at the simplified URL www.altavista.com. And getting there will be still easier in the future when a second new URL, www.av.com, goes live in November.

About AltaVista Search

Compaq's AltaVista is the most powerful and useful guide to the Internet. A forerunner in Web search technology, AltaVista is setting new standards, from indexing the entire Internet to providing the Web's first instant language translation capabilities. With an extensive line-up of innovative content and services, AltaVista is one of the top destinations on the Web. For more information, visit AltaVista's flagship site located at http://www.altavista.com

Company Background

Founded in 1982, Compaq Computer Corporation is a Fortune Global 100 company. Compaq is the second largest computer company in the world and the largest global supplier of personal computers. Compaq develops and markets hardware, software, solutions and services, including industry-leading enterprise computing solutions, fault-tolerant business-critical solutions, networking and communication products, commercial desktop and portable products and consumer PCs. The company is an industry leader in environmentally friendly programs and business practices.

Compaq products are sold and supported in more than 100 countries through a network of authorized Compaq marketing partners. Customer support and information about Compaq and its products are on the World Wide Web at http://www.compaq.com and are available by calling 1-800-OK-COMPAQ. Product information and reseller locations are available by calling 1-800-345-1518.

Compaq, Registered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

(1)Scheduled to be live in November