Current Issue

Welcome to Issue #147 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!

Spammers take it up a notch
In the battle against spam, every time the anti-spam industry comes up with a new way to beat junk mail, the spammers figure out another way to get past spam filters. Spam War demonstrates some of the new ways spam is finding its way to your inbox.

Before you use that escrow service...
If you are a regular eBay user, you may be familiar with escrow services that hold onto the buyer's money until the merchandise arrives as promised. eBay recommends using one service, Escrow.com. But other services are popping up on the Internet, and not all of them are above-board. Follow the tips at the bottom of the article when considering whether you should use an online escrow service.

Be Froogle, wirelessly
Froogle, the great shopping search feature of Google, is now available from your cell phone. Just point your phone's browser to http://wml.froogle.com, and you can check out the lowest prices while you're out shopping.

Towards a more personalized search
Search engine analysts are finding that users prefer results that can be personalized, and new search engines are looking to get in on the act.

ID Theft -- yes, you should worry
Many people don't realize how easy it is for others to steal your personal information and bleed your bank account dry before you know it. In Identity Theft: What, Me Worry?, PC Magazine tells the story of several people who had their identities stolen; one of them didn't even happen online. The article contains some terrific tips for protecting your personal information, both online and off.

Google Still Tops
Nielsen NetRatings reports that Google is still tops in searches, with over 59.3 million unique viewers during the month of January, 2004. Yahoo! was second, with 45.7 million, and MSN Search third, with 44.6 million. With Yahoo's new features announced in February, I'll be interested to see if those numbers begin to shift.

Grokker 'N Google
Have you downloaded the new search utility Grokker? If you have, take advantage of the Google plug-in, which allows you to query and retrieve information from Google and visualize the results in a Grokker map. I couldn't find it on the Grokker plugins page (head to the Grokker home page and click on Plug-Ins); hopefully it will be available on the site soon.

Las noticias de Google ahora alertan disponible en diversas idiomas
The terrific Google News Alerts are now available in french, italian, german, and spanish.

NetSky on the loose, Part D
The latest variant of the NetSky virus, NetSky.D, is rapidly spreading across the Internet, as usual through e-mail. It's spreading so fast, in fact, that its sibling NetSky.E was first discovered the same day. Keep your PCs safe out there, folks.

Shocking headline of the week
A study of Internet user habits finds that pop-up ads often resulted in users having a negative image of the advertiser. The study showed that users close pop-up ads within 2.5 seconds of opening them. The name of the company conducting the study -- Bunnyfoot Universality -- had me chuckling. Sounds like the random words you see nowadays in the subject line of spam.

Virus protection tips from Microsoft
Originally intended for Microsoft Office System users, this list of best practices for protection from viruses contains some good advice we can all use.

Blawgs of the Week
Only a few new law-related blawgs this week. Morningstar Multimedia, a Philadelphia firm providing positioning, strategy, and creative services to law firms, also publishes the Law Firm Marketing Blog, with updates at least once a week. Walloworld is the weblog of Bill Wallo, a lawyer and occasional freelance writer living in Northern Wisconsin.

Google by the numbers

In 9,000 Google hits can't be wrong - or can they?, the author discusses how news journalists often use Google results to make generalized statements about society and culture. An example: a search for "naked men" brings 601,000 results from Google, while "naked women" yields 1,050,000 results. Ergo, the female body must be more desirable than the male -- right?

Or take this example from the article -- a journalist wrote that "no other instrument is targeted more frequently than the viola" for jokes, [What a bizarre topic for an article!] basing her opinion solely on the fact that a Google search for viola jokes yields 20,400 results. Actually, that's not quite true -- she should have used quotes in her search, and a search for "viola jokes" only yields 2,460 results. In contrast, "saxophone jokes" brings you 11,000 results -- obviously a far funnier instrument.

While I certainly agree that search engines, and Google in particular, can be a measure of a website's or a topic's popularity, I just don't think it's a very accurate measure, especially given the ease with which search results can be manipulated (for example, by Google Bombing).

Help Desk

If you use Outlook and you have LOTS of contacts, you may sometimes have trouble finding a name. It's even harder if you can't remember the person's last name, or you only remember the e-mail address. Fortunately, the Find a Contact box can help you out. The box is part of the Standard toolbar -- if that toolbar is not visible on your Outlook screen, just enable it by selecting View, then Toolbars, and selecting Standard. Once it appears, just type a partial name, a first or last name, or an e-mail address (even a partial e-mail address works) into the box; the contact (or a list of potential contacts) will appear. The Find a Contact box saves your searches too -- just click the arrow to the right of the box, and select a search query.

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!

LawMoose
Launched in 2000, LawMoose states it was the Web's first regional legal search engine. The site is geared primarily to Minnesota and Wisconsin, but all researchers can find something of value here. From the Minnesota/Wisconsin communities, you can locate legal articles, judges, lawyers, and legal reference materials relevant to that state. The "World" community page allows you to enter search terms for world, Minnesota, or Wisconsin law sites, explore the former U.S. House of Representatives Internet Law Library, or find legal links for all 50 states and the major countries of the world. A terrific regional offering with something for everyone.

National Transportation Library
A product of the U.S. Department of Transportation, the National Transportation Library provides access to the information that supports transportation policy, research, operations, and technology transfer activities. You can search or browse the digital collection, which includes such topics as aviation, freight, highway/road transportation, laws and regulations, maritime/waterways, rail transportation, pedestrians and bicycles, and more. Each topic contains sub-topics that offer hundreds of relevant articles. The site also provides access to TransCat, which allows you to search multiple transportation library catalogs at the same time. Take some time to explore the resources on this site.

Offender.us
This site provides a handy listing of all sex offender registries online. In addition to links to sex offender registries, you can also access information on inmates as well as state-by-state criminal background checks.

Subpoena Defense
The constitutional rights of ISPs and consumers are the concerns of this website. Most of the information on this site deals with those ISPs who have received subpoenas from the RIAA for the names of individuals who are being sued for illegal music downloads, but the site provides assistance for anyone regarding potential copyright infringement. The site is basically a brochure, with a list of attorneys who can help consumers or ISPs.

The Push Journal
PUSH stands for Periodic Updates of Sexual and Reproductive Health Issues Around the World. It is the product of a partnership between the Communications Consortium Media Center and UNFPA, the UN Population Fund. Once you register for free, you'll receive free full-text news stories on sexual and reproductive health issues five days a week.

Did you ever wonder about all those odd charges on your wireless phone bill? The FCC provides this page to demystify all the gobbledy-gook.

And if your cell phone bill is keeping you awake at night, Shuteye.com can help you find a good night's rest.

The Letter Project will take your word or phrase and animate it, so to speak -- there's even a way you can turn your message into an e-card.

Well, that’s it for Issue #147 – 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.

Subscription Information: If you want to keep on receiving issues of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net, or visit Inter Alia and sign up there! If you no longer want to receive the newsletter, just click on the link at the bottom of this newsletter. Or, send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)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 tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net.