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Welcome to Issue #128 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!

Search engine reviews for consumers
I'm not sure how old this is, but Consumer Reports has a page containing reviews of the major search engines. Ask Jeeves, Google, and Yahoo get the top ratings.

Bad news for LookSmart
Search service LookSmart has lost its biggest client, MSN. Seems that MSN is developing its own search engine. This will be a big hit for LookSmart -- the deal with MSN accounted for 65% of the company's listings-driven revenue.

Tutorial on Search Engines
If you (or someone you love) needs a quick and easy lesson on searching the Internet, check out Understanding Search Engines and How They Work. Basic info, but many people still don't get it.

Onward and Upward
The amount of spam arriving in our inboxes just won't stop. Anti-spam service Brightmail estimates that 54% of our September e-mail was pure junk. There's even a depressing graphic showing the upward trend.

Search engines and punctuation
Greg Notess over at Search Engine Showdown has a brief discussion about how Google treats punctuation differently from other search engines.

Another privacy problem for Google?
A few weeks ago, I reported that Google was introducing a new feature that would track the number of times you use the search engine each day. Now the New York Times reports on Google's counter, and asks some valid questions: do people know they are being tracked, and what type of information is being transmitted back to Google?

Detod Comes on Strong
I have been remiss in not reporting this sooner, but Chad Williamson over at Detod.com is going gangbusters with his new features. You can search using GigaBlast, Open Directory Project, and you can also search for blogs and blawgs. This place is becoming a real portal, with links to news, weather, blawgs, and a full-sized legal directory. Definitely check this site out.

Car Rentals in Cyberspace
If you're planning a car trip in the near future, you might want to check out the latest report from ConsumerWebWatch on Renting Cars Online. The report reviews the three major travel services -- Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz, as well as the major auto rental companies.

Think before you hit Forward
Lowry's Reports, Inc. publishes the Market Trend Analysis Report, a daily e-mail on stock market analysis -- it costs $700/year. Three employees of Financial services company Legg Mason had subscriptions to this report, and forwarded it to about a quarter of the company's 5,300 employees. Last week, a jury awarded Lowry's 20 million dollars for copyright violations.

Blawgs of the Week
Another week, another crop of law-related weblogs for you to enjoy: Public Defender Dude presents the rantings of a Public Defender constantly fighting against society's pervasive Police Industrial Complex. Christophe Courchesne, a Harvard law student and candidate for Amesbury Municipal Council, recently debuted the Courchesne Digital Democracy blog. Greg Siskind, who may have had one of the first weblogs (then, an online diary) on the Internet, has revived the concept and is now publishing content on immigration law over at the Visalaw Blog.

SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT ON THE INTERNET

Environmental law is a subject I overlook too often in this newsletter. So this week I thought I would review a selection of environmental websites I have come across that may be of use to the legal researcher. Consider this as "Part 1" of a continuing series; there are too many sites to cover in this short article.

The logical place to start, of course, is the Environmental Protection Agency, where two current initiatives are "Clear Skies," and "Cleaner Diesel." You should take your time exploring this site; there's a lot to see. You can browse headlines in the newsroom, conduct research on specific environmental topics from air to water, and review the federal laws and regulations applicable to the environment. Probably the most valuable information to be found on this site is contained within the EPA's databases, with statistics and data on all sorts of environmental issues. You can even check out the conditions in your area.

Another federal site concerning itself with environmental issues is the Department Of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division. This division primarily brings suit against those who violate pollution control laws, and defends against challenges to government programs and activities. The site provides links to legal documents, press releases, and proposed consent decrees.

The rest of the sites we'll look at this week are all independent organizations concerned with the environment. First up is Environmental Defense, a non-profit organization that uses "science, economics and law to create innovative, equitable and cost-effective solutions to society's most urgent environmental problems." There are a good number of resources here, on the major topics of Biodiversity, Climate Change, Health, and Oceans. There are a *lot* more issues covered here, however; you can access them from a pull-down menu on the home page. Greenpeace, the eternal thorn in the sides of various industries, has a very colorful site, chock full of information on the organization's projects. The current campaigns include Forests, Genetic Engineering, Global Warming and Energy, Nuclear, Oceans, and Toxic Pollution.

The Natural Resources Defense Council uses "law, science, and the support of more than 1 million members and online activists to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things." Sounds a lot like Environmental Defense above, doesn't it?. You'll find links to many of the same topics here that you'll find on other The NRDC also features OnEarth Magazine, with quarterly reports on the environment. Another similar site is more global in scope -- the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre is part of the United Nations Environment Programme, with numerous conservation programs, and projects addressing the relationship between trade and the environment.

The League of Conservation Voters represents the political voice of the environmental movement. The organization focuses less on environmental issues and more on the politicians who can impact them. The LCV targets anti-environment candidates, and helps to protect weak candidates who have pro-environment positions. Finally, a single-issue environmental site. The Wetlands Regulation Center provides resources to those interested in the laws, policies and regulations concerning activities regulated under the Clean Water Act in waters of the United States, including wetlands. Not much to this site, actually -- just the regulations. You can review federal, state, and pending regulations on wetlands, as well as some selected court opinions.

Stay tuned for more environmental sites in upcoming issues!

When you log into a site on the Internet, are you tired of Internet Explorer asking you if you want to save the password? You can save them automatically, without having to deal with the annoying pop-up. Just select Tools, then Internet Options, then click the Content tab. Click AutoComplete, and uncheck the box that says Prompt Me to Save Passwords. That's all there is to it.

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!

European Union Member States
Part of the European Union website, this page lists the current and new member states of the governing body. Click on each country, and receive a quick description along with several important links for each. Not much else here, but it's definitely a useful page.

Federal Labor Relations Authority
The FLRA is an independent agency responsible for administering the labor-management relations program for 1.9 million Federal employees world-wide. This is a content-rich site; you'll find information here on filing complaints, applicable statutes and regulations, court opinions, news and publications, and more. The only thing I don't like about this site is the way the home page menu is designed -- people with lesser web browsers will find that when they try to go to other pages, the outline of the menu box will hide the text on those pages.

Harvard Health Publications ($$)
Wow, you'll find a lot of health information here. However, you'll have to pay for it; there are newsletters, special alerts, and books for sale here, at prices starting at $24 per copy. There are five newsletters, and special alerts in categories such as Common Medical Concerns, Wellness and Prevention, Emotional Well-Being and Mental Health, Women's Health, Men's Health, and Heart and Circulatory Health. There *is* one newsletter -- HealthBeat -- that you can receive for free, so check it out.

Intellectual Property Links
The title of this site lives up to its name -- it's a simple page with a whole lotta intellectual property links. Find IP offices and organizations, database providers, gazettes, courts, regulations, caselaw, databases, and more. You can't go wrong with a single page that lists all the sites you need on the subject of intellectual property.

KeepMedia ($$)
For just 4.95/month, you'll have access to over 140 magazines, newspapers, and other periodicals. Your subscription also entitles you to access to the archives of certain magazines and newspapers. You can set up a newsclipping service for suggested articles, and you can even view magazine content online even when the magazine is still being sold at the newsstand. Representative periodicals include Business Week, Forbes, Foreign Policy, Inc., Kiplinger's, Library Journal, Psychology Today, and much more, including many industry magazines.

Halloween is just around the corner -- here are some sites to spice up the holiday! The first site is for hard-core Halloween lovers. Extreme Pumpkins turns the quaint notion of pumpkin carving on its head. This site is not for the Halloween traditionalist. And if you're having a masquerade party and just don't know what to serve, check out not martha: Halloween 2002 for some links to fun and interesting holiday recipes. I'm especially intrigued by the Mexican Sugar Skulls and the ever-popular Meathead.

Well, that’s it for Issue #128 – 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.

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Questions? New websites? Just want to talk? Send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net.