Here is the message I received May 4 :

"Dear AltaVista Affiliate:

AltaVista is restructuring our affiliate program effective May 2, 2001. As of May 2, AltaVista will no longer provide commissions for click-throughs that are generated by AltaVista links. These changes will not affect the search services on altavista.com, however the AltaVista affiliate search box graphic that you may be using on your site will no longer be funcational as of May 7."

My experience:

Alta Vista is not paying you any money when people use the searchbox !!

AltaVista is one of the most known names on the internet. Therefore, all your visitors knows what they get when they search frome your site if you use Alta Vista.. You may choose boxes in two sizes, regular 468x60 and the size you see to the left. Two different colors, white and yellow. You will also get boxes with themebuttons below the searchfields, like "news" or "sport".