Search services: HotBot
Header
Service name: Hotbot
Last update of this description: 3.9.1996
Description written by: Kai Halttunen
General information
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Type of service (according to TK's typology): Robot based index
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Access:(free, commercial): Free
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Volume:
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URLs known: 50 000 000
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Number of documents indexed: 36 000 000
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Publisher: Hot Wired -magazine and Inktomi search engine
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URL for Top-level Page: http://www.hotbot.com/
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Mirror sites: No
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URL for the organization: http://www.hotwired.com/ and http://www.inktomi.com/
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History: New search engine, now in beta-testing
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Update frequency of the whole database: Once a week (7 000 000 pages
per day)
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Document rating, reviews, "added value" included: No
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Registration needed: No
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Costs: No
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Performance:
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Response time: Fast
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Time outs: No
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Image download time: Not so fast - heavy graphics
Harvesting
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Harvesting software: Inktomi robot
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Robot (type; follows robot exclusion standard?): Yes
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Method:
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Human:
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Automatic: Yes
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User registration: Yes
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User deletable: No
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Depth first:
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Breadth first:
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Type coverage:
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WWW: Yes
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gopher:
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WAIS:
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ftp:
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telnet (OPACs):
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UseNet News: In the near future
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Listserv:
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IRC:
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Other databases (numeric, commercial):
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Multimedia products (images, movie, sounds): java applets, netscape
plug-inns
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Other types:
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Geographic coverage:
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Subject coverage (General or specialized content): General
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Update frequency for visiting the same sites/documents again: Once a
week
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Number of dead links:
Indexing
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Indexing software:
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What is indexed:
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Extracted information, fields indexed:
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Titles:
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Headings:
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Header information (included metainformation): META -tag incomming
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File information (size, date): Yes
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Links (URLs):
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The anchor text of links:
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Other HTML tags:
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Summary/excerpts (how generated):
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Full text: Yes
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What is not indexed:
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Separate metainformation provided by the search service:
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Human cataloguing and indexing: No
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Human summary/abstract, excerpt, review: No
Retrieval system:
Search software: Inktomi (tm) custom-built uses Informix and SQL
Type of retrieval system:
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Boolean (exact match):
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Best match:
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Combination: Yes
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Vector retrieval:
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nonverbal (citation indexing):
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Other:
Query structures and operations supported
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Natural language:
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Word list (no Boolean operators associated): Yes
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Boolean query: Yes (not expressed in standard syntax)
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Boolean operators:
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AND: Yes - all of these words
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OR: Yes - any of these words
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NOT: Yes - shoudn't contain the words
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Nesting (parentheses supported): No
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Restrictions:
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mixing of operators: Possible in Modify-search option
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number of search keys: Not limited
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distance in number of words:
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distance in text structure: Limit the search to URL
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bound phrases: Yes (quatationmarks or pull-down menu)
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Other:
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Ranking algorithm:
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ranking factors: TITLE emphasised, frequency of words
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calculation of scores:
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User weighted words: No
Search terms:
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Truncation:
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Not supported: No
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Automatic:
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stemming algorithm (morfological):
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add wildcard (mechanical):
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left (mechanical):
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right (mechanical):
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Manual
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What is the default and is it user changeable?:
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String match features: No
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regular expressions:
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internal masking:
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case sensitive specify:
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others:
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Any limits for a search term (character sets supported):Searches and
displays Latin-1.
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Any limits for the size of a result set: No
WHAT IS SEARCHABLE:
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Possibility to specify source types: Possible to specify "media types"
within WWW pages (Java, JavaScript, Audio, Acrobat, Shockwave, VRML, Smiley(?))
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System searches as default:
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URL:
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Title, headings:
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Keywords:
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Summary:
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Fulltext: Yes
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cited URL, anchor text:
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others:
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User selectable search fields:
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URL: Yes
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Title, headings:
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keywords:
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Summary:
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Fulltext:
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cited URL, anchor text:
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others: Personal name = proximity (not bound phrase)
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Other search options:
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Stopword list
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Uses the system a stopword list?:
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How is the stopword list constructed? (e.g. words exceeding a given absolut
frequency are automatically put into the stopword list): Yes
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Can the stopword list be sidestepped in a search? (e.g. in a phrase search):
No, HotBot recommends to avoid too common words in phrases
SEARCH IMPROVEMENT:
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Concept search: No
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Query expansion: No
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Controlled Vocabulary, thesauri: No
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Relevance feedback, find similar:
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Improve your search support or form: Yes (Revise search form displayes
standard search interface with entered search keys)
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Navigation and graphical features: Outlook is quite fuzzy, postmodern
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Other features: Scalable, results shown in differnet window
RESULT DISPLAY:
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Result set information:
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total: Yes
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subsets: No
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Possible to choose number of displayed hits?: Yes (10,25,50,100)
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Is the number of hits displayed limited by the service?: No
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What can be displayed:
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URL: Yes
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Hotlink to original document: Yes
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Title, headings: Yes (title)
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Keywords: No
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Summary: Excerpt
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Fulltext: Yes (original document in a new window)
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cited URL, anchor text: No
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Show hits in context: No
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Highlight hits: No
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document size: Yes
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document last updated: No
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document last visited: Yes
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Pre-defined display formats: No
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Other display options: Original documents can be displayed in new window
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Information about relevance scores:
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Score displayed?: Yes (%)
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Matching terms:
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Sorting:
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URL-based:
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others (size, number of links): Relevance based
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Afterprocessing of the result by the service:
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duplicate check: No (incoming)
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link check: No
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Other display options:
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Browsing structure (Subject catalogue), Organization of the result:
No
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Browsing structure integrated with index?: No
User interface
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General description of interface: Query field, pull-down menus to choose
operators. Three level interface: simple, modify, expert
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Clarity of interface: Not so clear, postmodern
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Clarity of search page or index: Not so clear
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Text-Only support:Yes
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HTML Forms support: Yes
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URL for Forms Search Page: http://www.hotbot.com/index.html
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Query input form:
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Optional forms for input:
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simple but limited: Yes
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structured: Yes (Modify and Expert -search interfaces)
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free not limited:
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other supported:
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Non-Forms support: No
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URL for Non-Forms Search Page:
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Adaptations to special browsers (Netscape, lynx): Adopts to clients
browser (Netscape Navigator (versions 1.2 to 2.0), Microsoft Internet Explorer
(versions 1.5 to 2.0), Lynx (version 2-4-2 or later), America Online browser,
Oracle Power Browser and Netcom NetCruiser are supported)
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Online Help?: No
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URL for FAQ Page: http://www.hotbot.com/faq.html
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URL for Help Page: http://www.hotwired.com/help/hotbot/f-help.html
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Navigation Aids: Good
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Search Tutorials: No
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Sample Searches: No
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Server Load Indicators: No
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What's New page: No
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What's Popular page: No
Documentation
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Manual:
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Literature:
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Reviews:
URL for Copyright/Legal Page: No
URL for Subscription Page: No
URL for Creator's Page: http://www.inktomi.com/
Our evaluation of the service
(Summary. strong points, weaknesses, criticism, recommendations to users
etc.)
Traugott Koch (Traugott.Koch@ub2.lu.se)
Anna Brümmer, anna@munin.ub2.lu.se
Lotta Åstrand, lotta@munin.ub2.lu.se
Kai Halttunen, likaha@uta.fi
Eero Sormunen, lieeso@uta.fi
Anne Suoniemi, tmansu@uta.fi
Last update: 96-09-03