When you use Alta Vista to search the World Wide Web, you are actually searching a database that indexes every word of every document published on a web server anywhere in the world. You would get millions of documents returned to you. Let's assume that you want to find information on the German theologian Martin Luther. You'll get articles on Billy Martin, Martin Luther King, purple martins, Luther Burbank, etc. Try it .
Many problems still remain, however.
It would be nice to exclude Martin Luther King from your search to cut down on the number of returned articles. You might also refine your search by adding specific information that you are searching for. For example, let's assume that you are looking for information on the birth of Protestantism spurred by Luther's nailing of his 95 reform theses on the church door. Try it . Capital letters also affect the results of a search.