INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
May 9, 2004
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #153 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!
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And away we go…..
The IPO to end all IPOs
In case you haven't heard, Google is going public. Danny Sullivan offers a closer look at the filing. I could waste a lot of space in this newsletter covering the IPO -- if you want to keep up with the latest, keep on eye on Watching Google Like a Hawk.Are YOU an addict?
Do you find you are spending more time online than is reasonably healthy for you? Here's a test to determine if you indeed are an Internet addict.Using spam filter technology in your research
Google Alert, no doubt in a move triggered by the debut of Google's own Google Web Alerts, has announced several new technologies, including SightPoint, which uses Bayesian statistics to rate new search results based on their similarity to results the user has clicked on before.Searching for Science
I forgot to mention this story when it first came out a few weeks ago, but Wired featured an article early last month on Scirus, a science search engine that indexes 167 million scientific web pages for its results. Good to see Scirus is still doing well; I have mentioned the site in both 2002 and 2003. Scirus even has its own toolbar.Pics on View at LOC
The Library of Congress has expanded its online access to photographs and prints in the Prints and Photographs Reading Room. Keep in mind that not all of these photos are in the public domain, and the usual copyright protections will apply.Where loyalty has its drawbacks
A recent study by iProspect on search engine loyalty finds that 56.7 percent of Internet users use the same search engine when performing research. This, of course, is contrary to the advice that I and others give about using search engines: use a search engine according to the type of search you are conducting. In the survey, only 13% of Internet users follow that advice.Spyware on your PC?
Gee, Earthlink really has it going on as a proactive ISP, huh? It has introduced a new toolbar called ScamBlocker, which is designed to track and block access to known swindle sites. Unfortunately, services like these are necessary, because sometimes an Internet user's most dangerous enemy is his or her own lack of knowledge on the hazards that await on the Net. And if that isn't enough, Earthlink, has also started a free scanning service called SpyAudit; they have found that the average PC user has 28 spyware items on his or her PC.Research on your Crackberry
For those of you who use the RIM device, you know what I'm talking about -- it's addictive, isn't it? Well, it turns out that LexisNexis is an enabler, now making its content available via the Blackberry wireless platform. The service will soon offer the ability to search results from over 14,000 information sources. All on that little tiny device.Search Engine Overlap
In many of the seminars I give on search engines and legal research, I point out that it is a mistake to rely on only one search engine, because the overlap between the various search engines is not that great. Now there's a way to see that for yourself, graphically. Thumbshots is a ranking comparison tool that shows you the overlap between two search engines on a specific query. Just enter a similar query and any one of seven search engines, and you'll get a graphical depiction of the overlap. Chris Sherman has more on this. The Thumbshots page is pretty cool -- my only concern with it is that it uses AllTheWeb and AltaVista as comparison tools, and they aren't being indexed anymore -- are they? If so, they aren't very good standards of measurement.Plot out your news journey
NewsMap is an interesting new application that "visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator." Its objective is "to simply demonstrate visually the relationships between data and the unseen patterns in news media."Blawgs of the Week
A few choice new law-related weblogs for you this week: The folks at the Boley Law Library at Lewis & Clark Law School have started up BoleyBlogs!, sharing the finest in legal research links, news and hints. Spylawg scouts the world of spyware and the law for you, and brings you back regular news on the subject. And over at Blawg.org, Bill is aggregating headlines from intellectual property weblogs and posting them here. Even better is the OPML file he has created, so you can download news from all of the IP blawgs directly into your newsreaderHere's a tip for WordPerfect users this week: do you use AutoScroll? The third button from the right on WordPerfect's toolbar (up and down arrows with a dot between them) turns on the feature. When you click on this button, the right scroll bar turns into a flat bar with a button in the middle, and the mouse pointer turns into a symbol that looks like the toolbar button. Move the pointer up and down to quickly scroll through your document; the farther up or down you go, the faster things move. To turn AutoScroll off, just click anywhere in the document.
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
Who is John Doe
This no-nonsense page is part of the Reporter's Desktop, and it offers several links to help you dig up dirt on people. Find out where "John Doe" was married, had previous addresses, holds a professional license, works for the government or private company, conducts medical or scientific research, or other types of background information. There are better suggested sites for some of the categories mentioned, but this is a nifty one-page solution to get you started.LegalEthics.com
Generally considered to be the best site on legal ethics, LegalEthics.com has tons of information on almost every facet of the subject. Just choose a category and then a topic to find the information you want; categories include Courts, Ethics, Federal, Laws, Legal Reference, Practice Areas, States, Technology, and more. Many of the links take you to other sites, and when I explored it this week I found several links that were out of date or just plain missing. Hopefully they will get updated soon.State Health Legislation and Statute Database
This is part of the terrific National Conference of State Legislatures, and all it does is provide you with legislation and current law from the various states on health promotion. Just choose an issue area (ranging from Arthritis to Worksite Wellness) and the state, and you'll be taken to a summary of laws from that particular state on the issue. It's a helpful way to conduct this type of research when you don't know where in a state's statutes you'll need to start your research.Securities Investor Protection Corporation
The SIPC either acts as trustee or works with a court-appointed trustee in a missing asset case to recover funds, primarily for customers of failed brokerages. You can view and make a claim in cases currently open, or view the list of closed cases. There's a Claim Help Center where you can learn about the claims process, as well as a section on protecting yourself against fraud.Insurance Law Digest
This is the type of website I really like -- a single page with summaries of a particular area of law for each state. As you might imagine, this page contains links to summaries of the insurance laws of the 50 states, each written by a law firm in that particular state. This is a very helpful way to get a quick education on the insurance laws of other states.
Last but not least, some fun and interesting sites for you this week:
A few weeks ago I mentioned that among the many new features recently introduced by Yahoo! was the Soul-Search Engine. It turns out that now you can do that for real at Yahoo, simply by typing "my destiny" and clicking Search.
Need a part for an appliance? Find it fast at PartSelect.com.
Well, that’s it for Issue #153 – 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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