Intrusive advertising such as pop-ups and pop-unders have been ditched by all 22 of the search brands' localised sites in a global overhaul to re-establish AltaVista as a pure search service. The company will now favour paid-for-inclusion services.
The site changes, which include improved news search and more regularly refreshed search results, will complete the shift from the brand's portal focus. Next month, AltaVista is to close its free email in the UK, used by 70,000 people, as part of the revamp.
Karl Gregory, director of marketing at AltaVista International, told Revolution: "The web site was exhausted and people didn't have a clear idea of whether we were an ISP, portal or search site. Any portal services inherited from our previous strategy are a distraction and we're putting our resources into search."
Mark Nall, director of sales and business development at AltaVista International, added that a central www.av.com address would be used in future marketing for the site. Visitors to av.com will be automatically shown local content.
"Av is three times faster to type than Google," said Nall.
The site's home page banner will also disappear as part of the overhaul, while banners and skyscrapers will use a 'Tracker' service that serves ads based on user search preferences.
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