Fast Search & Transfer ASA yesterday launched an upgraded version of its search engine, at alltheweb.com, adding now-standard advanced search functionality to what Fast claims is the net’s biggest web index. The total pages listed by alltheweb is around 210 million, and users will now be able to add filters based on language, domain, and key word.
Fast also says it has reduced average response times of its search engine to less than half a second. A test search for Microsoft returned 4,046,783 documents, apparently in 0.0050 seconds. The Norwegian firm says it has also streamlined the index to reduce dead links, porn and spam links.
The company thinks of itself and alltheweb as pure search engine technology, rather than a portal, and is now trying to woo internet service providers, portals and content providers as customers. ISP Exodus Communications Inc and Dell Computer Corp have already signed deals to bundle Fast technology in their hosting and server offerings respectively.
