Problem solved - our computer had been infected by a Trojan that's been hijacking users from search engines to alternate DNS sites. Unfortunately Microsoft doesn't yet have a patch for this one but I emailed the Google support folks and, bless 'em, they came back with 2 ways to check/fix it, one courtesy of an article by Symantec. I tracked down the offending hosts file, deleted the appropriate lines, saved the file again, et voila!
I used to use Alta Vista but converted to Google simply because it works better for me - more accurate hits, less distracting fluff (although the site's growing so big so fast I worry it's losing the simplicity that was it's great strength.)
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