INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
March 24, 2002
Tom Mighell

Welcome to Issue #64 of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, a newsletter that delivers relevant and timely legal research information, and other fun stuff, to your inbox every Sunday. If you like what you read, please forward this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested, and encourage him or her to do the same! To subscribe, all you have to do is send an e-mail to ilrw-subscribe@topica.com. It’s free!

And away we go…..

Notable News

More on Google News
Google’s News Search has already added a refinement – now you can sort your search results by relevance or by date (Thanks G.P.!).

Government Official? Don’t Destroy That E-Mail
Four news organizations have sued Utah Governor Mike Leavitt for destroying his e-mails, which they argue are public records.

You’ve Got Service of Citation!
The 9th Circuit ruled this week that service of process by e-mail may be appropriate in certain cases.

And in response to last week’s article about investigating the quality of healthcare websites, a librarian from Iowa wrote to tell me about Health Info Iowa, a state website that can also help you to evaluate online health information – thanks for the tip!

Get a Grip on your Research with SurfWax

Although I am an unabashed and completely biased fan of Google, I realize not everybody shares my obviously correct opinion. That’s why every few months I like to take a look at other search tools to let you know what’s out there. This week we’ll take a look at SurfWax , a new meta-search resource that’s generating a lot of positive buzz. SurfWax offers a lot of great features and is definitely worth a look.

One of the first things I noticed about SurfWax is that it does not work well with firewall programs. I recently started using ZoneAlarm (which I’ll talk about in next week’s issue), and I had to turn off its “Cookie Control” before I could get all of SurfWax’s features to work. If you use a firewall, you might try the same thing if the site won’t work for you.

Like most Internet search tools, SurfWax is free, but you can also become a Silver or Gold subscriber to get additional benefits. For $24 or $60 a year, you can create 10 to 15 Search Sets (which we’ll talk about later), and store up to 15mb of saved search information on SurfWax’s servers. If you’re not inclined to pay for your search results, not to fear; you can still get the full functionality of SurfWax without shelling out a dime.

In designing their site, the folks at SurfWax came up with a bunch of new terms, such as FocusWords, SearchSets, SiteSnaps, Context Zooming, and InfoCubby. We’ll talk about each of those in the context of a simple search for information on the California dog attack trial. I searched for “fatal dog attack trial,” and the results screen split in two, with a long (but not unmanageable) list of links down the left side. SurfWax takes the results from each search engine and refines them to avoid duplicates. At the top of the results are FocusWords; these are words from my query that can help me to further narrow the search. Here, the focus words were “fatal,” “attack,” and “trial.” Clicking on “trial” took me to a list of alternative definitions for the word, with synonyms that might help tailor the scope of the search. VERY helpful.

Within the search results themselves, you can see a SiteSnap of each link by clicking on the magnifying glass next to each result. The panel on the right side opens up with all sorts of helpful information. The SiteSnap provides an Author Summary, with a brief excerpt of text on the page. Next you’ll get the words in context – just click on the magnifying glass, and you’ll get the words surrounding your search terms, so you can read them in context. Also provided are additional “FocusWords” from the web page you can add to your search simply by clicking on them. If you like the web page you find, you can automatically add it to your “InfoCubby,” a place on SurfWax where you can save Web pages for future use (the amount of space you get depends on your registration level). You can use InfoCubby to organize research you use on a regular basis, so you can return to it again and again.

Another terrific feature of SurfWax is its SearchSets function. SearchSets allows you to create your own “meta-search,” by adding only those websites you want to search. If you are using the free service, you’ll be limited in the search engines and other sites that can be searched, but silver and gold subscribers can get access to over 1,850 sources. I created my own SearchSet for a search on NCAA basketball – I added Google, AllTheWeb, Yahoo!, MSNBC Sports, and CBS Sportsline. I then went back to the SurfWax general page, and I was given the option of searching the default search engines, or my own special SearchSet. I chose my SearchSet, and entered a query for “March Madness 2002.” My search returned pages only from the sites I entered in my SearchSet, with all the features I described above. What a tremendous way to focus a search!

On April 22, 2002, SurfWax will launch the Legal Researcher, providing a more focused search for those in the legal profession. I couldn’t find out additional information about the new legal research tool – you’ll have to check it out for yourself next month!

Do any of you currently use SurfWax? Rants? Raves? Drop me a line at tmighell@swbell.net and I’ll post the responses in a future issue!

Help Desk

Keeping your computer and the data on it secure is an important thing nowadays, so for the next three issues I’ll discuss different ways to keep people (and other computers) out of your stuff.

This week, protect your documents and other sensitive information from prying eyes by encrypting your files. There are a lot of files that allow you to encode your files, including two that are free: Cryptext and ddcrypt v2.0.

You might also want to encrypt your e-mail. Doing this for free is a bit more difficult, but doable if you’re willing to potentially use a different e-mail address. Yahoo! Mail lets you send mail by “Zixmail,” which sends out encrypted mail that vanishes if your recipient doesn’t read the e-mail within seven days. You can also check out Hushmail.com, where you can send out encrypted e-mails for free. If you want something a big more robust, consider Network Associate’s PGPFreeware, which works with Outlook, Eudora, and ICQ. Download it at Download.com.

Do you have a question about searching the Internet or your computer in general? Drop me a line at tmighell@swbell.net– I’ll post your question (don’t worry, I won’t use your real name) and try to get an answer for you!

Legally Relevant – Sites on the Internet

Political Information (.com)
This site bills itself as a “search engine” for politics, policy, political news, and everything else.” That “everything else” part makes me nervous, but Political Information certainly does provide a ton of, well, political information. The search engine itself indexes over 5,000 politics/policy websites, and is re-indexed every two to three weeks. You can also search dozens of political news sites for the latest campaign information. Also available are directories to hundreds of sites on various political topics including campaigns, news, political portals, government info, grassroots, issues, parties and organizations, and political research tools. Give it a try!

Free Medical Journals
As you know, I LOVE sites providing free information. And this site doesn’t shy away from letting you know that its goal is to provide access to ever-increasing numbers of medicals journals that can be accessed for free on the Internet. As of today, the site features 910 journals, which have been sorted in various ways for your browsing pleasure. Select by Specialty or Language; either way you’ll get free access to some significant medical research.

Alcohol Industry and Policy Database
Presented by the Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems, this database indexes 13,000 articles about the alcohol beverage industry, alcohol policy, and prevention efforts, from 1991 to the present. The search interface is very simple; there are separate boxes for Keywords, Subject Headings, Company Name, Publication Date, and Author. Just plug in the information you know, and you’re set. If you’re having trouble finding anything, there’s a nifty feature called the Word Wheel that provides a helpful list of terms. Unfortunately, you can only get abstracts of the articles here.

Web-Agri
Okay, so I’m hooked on search engines this week. Web-Agri searches – you guessed it -- just agricultural websites. The site claims to index 764,244 pages, all having to do with agriculture. My search for “sorghum” yielded more than 300 results; I know nothing about the subject, so I can’t tell you if the sites returned were relevant or not. But that shouldn’t stop you from trying this specialized search engine.

Acurian
If you’re looking for information on clinical trials and new drugs, Acurian is the place to be. There are over 26,000 clinical trials listed, 10,000+ references to prescription drugs, and more than 2,500 news and feature articles. Just select a condition, which range from Allergies to Thyroid Disorders, and you’ll get an instant count of the number of clinical trials and drug references available. Then select a state (if applicable), and the number of sites is further refined. Once you submit your search, you’ll get a page with tabs for each category – clinical trials, drug info, and news and features. The Drug Information Section provides links to current drugs in clinical trials, current available drugs and supplements, and newly approved drugs.

Finally, a useful site for world travelers. If you’re heading to a city with a subway system, why not plan in advance for your travels underground? The Subway Navigator will show you subway maps, a route finder that helps you find your way from one place to another, and a listing of interesting places near the subway station you selected.

Well, that’s it for Issue #64– I hope you liked it! If you did, pass this along to anyone you think might be interested, and encourage him or her to subscribe. Also, feel free to drop me an e-mail any time if you have questions, or if you have websites or other topics you want included in a future issue.

Tom Mighell

Subscription Information: If you want to keep on receiving issues of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, send an email to tom@inter-alia.net, or visit Inter Alia sign up there! If you no longer want to receive the newsletter, just send me an e-mail at tom@inter-alia.net and I'll remove you from the list.

Archives: Miss an issue? You can read previous issues of the Internet Legal Research Weekly in the Archives.

Questions? New websites? Just want to talk? Send me an e-mail at tmighell@swbell.net.