Question to be answered: "Can I walk from the train station in Bath, England to the Bath Spa Hotel?"
Place: Gaithersburg, MD USA Date: March 3, 1998 Time: 9:15 AM (local time) Started search on Altavista Query: +Bath, England Clicked on #22 "hotels in Bath, England" Gave up after 4 mins and no results. Clicked on #23 After 3 mins, error msg about broken pipe. Revised query: +Bath, England "Bath Spa Hotel" Clicked on #1 "Bath Spa Hotel... 10 minutes walk from centre of Bath..." No further info on how far train station is from center or hotel. Back. Clicked on #2 "Bath Spa Hotel (Bath)" Clicked on "map page" Lots of clicking on various sections of map to see where the station is in relation to the hotel. Found both but no scale on maps. Back, back. Clicked on #4 "The Bath Spa Hotel" url: www.bathspahotel.com/..... Picture of some rooms. No way to pop up. Back Truncated url after .com and pressed return Clicked on image on hotel's homepage Clicked on "Location" Eureka !! "Bath Spa station is about one mile from the hotel"
Place: Gaithersburg, MD USA Date: March 4, 1998 Time: 9:15 PM (local time) Started search on Altavista Query: maps of Bath, England Clicked on #1 "Excite Travel: Bath, England" (Maps listed in features) Clicked on "maps": this brought up choices around the world Clicked on "United Kingdom": this brought up small-scale UK map Clicked on approximate area of Bath: this brought up map of England Map would not go further: deadend Clicked on #3 "Bed and Breakfast in Bath" core dump Started search on Yahoo Clicked on "Maps" deadend: only U.S Clicked on "Travel" deadend: not clear where to click next Started search on Excite Query: maps of Bath, England Clicked on #1 "Excite Travel: Bath, England" Did NOT click on "maps" Clicked on "General Information" Clicked on "Travel and Tourism; Welcome to Bath" Clicked on "City/Street Zoom" Clicked on "Central City" Clicked on several different quadrants of 9 quadrant map to find Railway Station and Bath Spa Hotel; no distances given on map Clicked on Bath Spa Hotel link Clicked on several sublinks, none of which gave the information Gave up and took taxi from station to hotel
Place: Gaithersburg, MD USA Date: March 4, 1998 Time: 0:15 AM (local time) Guessed the hotel might have its own url and assumed .com convention Typed in "www.bathspahotel.com" Clicked on image on hotel's homepage Clicked on "Location" Eureka !! "Bath Spa station is about one mile from the hotel"