INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
September 28, 2003
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #126 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 visit Inter Alia and fill out the subscription form -- it's free!
And away we go…..
What's new with search engines
Greg Notess published his regular Internet Search Engine Update in the September/October Online Magazine to let us in on what's up with the major search engines.Well, this is a rather extreme response
Concerned by the amount of time spent by employees dealing with e-mail, U.K. company Phones4U has banned e-mail in its entirety. Company management believes this will free up an extra three hours each day for the employees.Personalizing your search results -- coming soon
This has been a big week for search engine personalization, which is one of the next big things in search technology The folks who brought you Google's PageRank technology have been working on something new, called Kaltix, which they hope will increase the user's ability to personalize his or her search results. It's still in development, but it definitely sounds promising. Following in the footsteps of GigaBlast's Geo-Tags, which attempt to tailor a user's search to his or her geographical area, Google is now testing a local search service. And there are those who want to make sure that search results are also politically and culturally sensitive to the searcher's sensibilities.
Librarians v. Google Answers Smackdown
In a study conducted by Cornell University's Instruction, Research, and Information Services, Cornell Librarians scored slightly better than their counterparts at Google Answers. But the sponsors of the survey admitted that the two aren't really natural competitors; rather they serve to complement each other, depending on the need of the researcher.Shopping at Yahoo!
Following close on the heels of the Froogle upgrade, Yahoo! has introduced its own shopping service. Check out SearchDay for a review.Tort and Insurance Portal Now Online
The ABA's Tort & Insurance Practice Section has launched e-DICTA, furnishing law and insurance resources to its members and the general public. This page and the Law and Insurance Portal offer a ton of information. There's even a small weblog aggregator on the page, provided by DailyWhirl (although one of the blogs there hasn't been updated in a few months -- I won't say which one).Software Bonanza
Microsoft has unveiled its new Office Online website, just in time for the debut of Office 2003, now known as the Microsoft Office System. This is a good place to find help, templates, patch files, and useful articles on using Office. PC Magazine reviews several News Readers, which allow you to read RSS feeds (they are the next big thing, folks!)-- the article likes Feed Demon and NewsGator the most. I currently use Feed Demon, and I love it. And Opera 7.20 is available for download, for those of you who like something a little leaner and faster than IE or Netscape.Total Recall?
No, I'm not talking about California or Schwarzenegger. I'm way late reporting on this, but the Wayback Machine has created a search engine named Recall -- it searches the more than 11 billion pages indexed within the Internet Archive site. If you haven't used the Wayback Machine, you don't know what you're missing. This site is invaluable for locating old and outdated website information, and the search engine makes it even more valuable.Very Lively...and getting livelier
My favorite meta-search tool Vivisimo was PC Magazine's Site of the Week last week, and it gets a pretty good review. Although Vivisimo has a ton of great features, my favorite (and its claim to fame) is its clustering engine, which groups your results into topic-based folders. This is a terrific way to narrow your search focus. Vivisimo recently released Version 4.0 of its clustering engine, which makes several improvements over the previous version. For those of you who haven't tried Vivisimo yet, what are you waiting for? You'll be pleasantly surprised at the results.Blawgs of the Week
It wouldn't be the same without a weekly helping of law-related weblogs. Here we go...LawBiz Management is brought to us by marketing coach Ed Poll. The appropriately-named Without a Net features the musings of an anonymous 1L making his way through law school. The Institute of Industrial Relations Library at the University of California, Berkeley has unveiled its companion Labor and Employment Weblog. A 34-year-old law student who used to play drums in loud rock bands now publishes Non-Traditional LA Law Student. One Maven is the journal of a confident 1L.When you hover over an image in Windows XP, an "image toolbar" pops up, that allows you to save, print, or e-mail the image, or open up your image folder. One interesting thing about the toolbar: some sites don't allow you to save images (for copyright reasons), by disabling the ability of your mouse to right click when you hover over the image. However, the image toolbar's Save button isn't disabled on these sites. Disclaimer: this newsletter is NOT condoning or encouraging the theft of images; we merely point out an interesting feature of the toolbar.
Do you have a question about searching the Internet or your computer in general? Drop me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)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
National Adoption Information Clearinghouse
Sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, the NAIC is intended as a comprehensive resource on all aspects of adoption. Most of the areas are geared toward the types of people who will be visiting the site, with links for Adoption Professionals, Adopted Persons, Birth Parents and Relatives, and Prospective and Adoptive Parents. You can also search the National Adoption Directory, choose from a list of adoption publications, review applicable federal and state statutes, and research adoption statistics. There are also a number of adoption databases that might contain the information you're seeking.elexica
What a terrific website! elexica is produced by the worldwide law firm of Simmons and Simmons, and it's a free online legal service created for lawyers. There's an international bent here; no U.S. law to be found, nosiree. You must register to take advantage of many of the features on the site, but it's free, so go on -- take advantage. First you'll find updates in different areas of law, from ADR to White Collar Crime. There are checklists to help you when drafting contracts, wills, M&A agreements, and other documents. The EU Diary provides a weekly look at the goings-on of the European Union. There's a lengthy selection of links in various legal areas, as well as training courses that can be taken (you must contact the firm to get access). As if that were not enough, you can also sign up for newsletters and e-mail updates in just about every area of law imaginable.Federal Business Opportunities
This site is the point of entry for Federal government procurement opportunities over $25,000. Here is where commercial vendors can find opportunities solicited by the federal contracting community. You can review the postings by location, award, or other factors, and sign up to receive additional notification on that particular opportunity.GovernmentRecords.com
If you're with a law enforcement agency, government agency, government contractor, or news organization, this might be an interesting site. Here you'll find registered voter information for over 157 million people. I couldn't get in because it requires registration, but the searches only cost between $11-$25, so it might be worth a look if you meet the eligibility criteria.IPWatchdog
Gene Quinn, an IP lawyer and law school professor, and provides free intellectual property resources in numerous areas, including antitrust, entertainment, copyright, Internet, patent, trademark, and trade secret law. Each subject area contains a list of topics, which either provide links to federal IP laws, or detailed information explaining the topic. There are also attorney resources, cases of interest, course material, a law library, message board, info on taking the patent bar exam, and more.law.co.il
Based in Israel, this website provides information on both Israeli and international law. Here you'll find legal links, cyberlaw articles, and news on recent Israeli cases. The website is also available in Hebrew.Natlex
Natlex is a continuously-updated database containing references to over 55,000 international laws on labor, social security, and related human rights, and over 300 laws in full text. You can browse the database, or search using your own terms. The Browse feature allows you to browse by country, subject, or text. For most of the laws you'll receive only the abstracts, but there are 300 full-text laws available at this site. This is an interesting place to research employment law on a worldwide basis.Academic Info
This page is a great list of links to all things academic. Links for various types of degree programs, links for college prep courses, links for subject gateways, links for students -- a LOT of links. This site is a useful compilation for educational researchers as well as students.Cell Phone Facts
The Food and Drug Administration provides this site with consumer information on wireless phones. You can find out about the description and safety aspects of different types of phones, research on cell phone safety, and whether certain cell phones interfere with medical devices. Also helpful is a list of other resources that provide similar useful information. There's even a glossary that will have you talking about non-ionizing radiation and the specific absorption rate in no time.Courtroom Information Project
The Courtroom Information Project is designed to give courtroom participants the visual and technological information they need in preparing for trial in any participating courtroom in the U.S. The Project is sponsored by Courtroom 21, the terrific techno-rich courtroom at William & Mary Law School. Here you can search for state, federal, and international courts to determine their technological capabilities. Each courthouse listed will show the technology available; VCRs, overhead projectors, plasma screens, for example. I only wish more courts would participate -- I know several courts in Dallas that are loaded with technology, and not a single Texas State court is in the database. What IS there, however, is extremely helpful.
Finally, some fun and useful sites to begin your week:
With all of the hysteria lately about keeping your computer well-patched to avoid invasion by worms, viruses, and other nasties, a site like the Software Patch sounds like a great idea. Come by here frequently for information on the latest patches of all sorts of software.
Check out the BMLWalker, a computer-generated assessment of biological motion patterns. I can't explain it -- you just have to try it.
Well, that’s it for Issue #126 – 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
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