September 19, 2004

Welcome to Issue #165 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!

How'd Your State Do?
The results are in, and it's official: Maine has the best state government website, followed by Indiana, Virginia, Delaware and Arizona, according to the Center for Digital Government. How do the other states rank? I'd love to see a complete report, but I couldn't find it on the website.

Google's local search gets better
Awhile back I mentioned that I liked Yahoo's local search better than the service being offered by Google. Well, Google must have heard something, because it has improved the interface of its search results. The maps are now being displayed on the search results page, and it's a cleaner interface. The results seem to be a lot more comprehensive, too. Yay Google!

New, small changes over at Google News
There are several new changes noticed at Google News. First is a pull-down menu at the top of the page that allows you to immediately switch to the Top Stories of other Google properties. The Google Alerts services have also been expanded, giving you a greater ability to manage your Alerts.

A research tool with something for everyone
Chris Sherman has a review today of a new search tool called Pluck. The utility combines a search toolbar, RSS reader, online bookmark manager, and web research manager, all in one package. And you can't beat free. I tried Pluck a few months ago when it first came out, and it kept crashing my PC -- maybe I'll give it another chance.

Blawgs of the Week
Here are the newest law-related (and other) weblogs I found this week: Biens Moebles (what does it mean? "Good furniture?") is blogging about and discussing the modern practice of law. Powerline is not a law-related weblog -- it's a political blog with a decided tilt to the right -- but it's written by three lawyers, so it's close enough. The folks over at Search Engine Watch have finally gotten around to starting a weblog, which is still in beta testing. If it's like the rest of the SEW content, it's bound to be good. Finally, The Xerdict Group, which publishes the Legal Extranet Blog I mentioned last month, is also blogging at the Legal Technology Blog, featuring recent and current information on legal technology trends, activities and vendors.

Random Thoughts

Gambling on online banking?
I love banking online. It is so nice to be able to pay bills, transfer funds, and even open accounts without leaving my home, and I can't believe there was a time when I had to actually go to a bank to do this. There are lots of bad folks out there who also love online banking, because it gives them increased opportunities to break into our bank accounts and steal our personal information, let alone our money. In fact, phishing scams and other dirty tricks are on the increase, prompting companies like Symantec to offer a service designed to combat phishing schemes. My favorite quote from the banking article: "Internet banking is terribly secure." Probably not my choice of words.

The Wise Internet Gumshoe
Believe it or not, there are people on the Internet who want to unfairly separate you from your hard-earned money. For instance, take the example of online people finders -- many of these services promise to help you find lost friends, family members, or witnesses -- for a low, low cost. The people who pay for these services then find that what they have bought was actually a set of links to already freely accessible resources.

There are a number of great people-finders on the Internet, and the article mentions some of them. I am partial to Accurint, which in my opinion is the best bang for the buck. For any given individual, you'll learn their past 10 years (or so) of addresses, family members, criminal or civil cases, property owned, cars registered to them, voter registration information, and a lot more -- and in most cases only for $4.50. Such a deal. PublicData is also a good site, when you want to spend even less -- I currently pay about 16 cents for a search on that site.

If you choose to use other people finder services, follow the tips at the bottom of the article to make sure you aren't getting ripped off.

A brand new search engine is unveiled again
A number of months ago, Amazon introduced its new A9 search engine, dubbed as a potential "Google killer." After a few days the buzz about A9 went away, and we didn't really hear about it any more. Until yesterday, that is. Amazon has unveiled a new version of A9, and I have to admit it's pretty intriguing. The home page has a History button that allows you to access and organize all of your past searches. When you perform a search, the results page allows you to see results in various categories -- the basic Web, books, images, movies, and reference (powered by GuruNet, if you have a subscription). In addition to the History button, you can also store your bookmarks here, as well as keep a diary about the sites you visit.

Many of the features work only if you download the A9 toolbar, which of course only works with Internet Explorer. But the other features here make this a pretty cool search tool. John Battelle has a pretty extensive review.

Those dastardly phishermen
I like to think I'm pretty savvy about spotting phishing and other e-mail scams. I have always said that your bank or credit card company (or any financial institution, for that matter) will never ask for your personal information via an e-mail. Most of these phishing scams are easy to spot -- just hovering your mouse of the link you're supposed to click will reveal that you're not really being taken to the Citibank, or PayPal, or eBay website -- instead you're being taken to a mocked-up website created by the scammers.

But they're getting smarter -- check out this new phishing trick. If you are using Firefox or Opera, you can click on those links and you'll be taken to Google. But if you try it using Internet Explorer, you'll find yourself taken to a very different website. The author's advice is sound: "NEVER NEVER NEVER click on a link in an e-mail. Always type in the URL in the address bar of your browser."

If you're just not sure whether that site is legitimate, check out Trustwatch, a domain verification service. You can download the anti-fraud toolbar that will tell you instantly whether that site you're visiting is trustworthy.

Help Desk

Want to unclutter your system tray (that place on your taskbar where your clock is)? Just right-click on an empty space on the taskbar, and select Properties. Check the Hide Inactive Icons box on the Taskbar tab. You can also click on the Customize button to choose whether a particular program's icon will always be hidden or shown.

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!

Nolo Shark Talk Dictionary
Okay, so it's not Black's Dictionary, but Nolo's Shark Talk Dictionary can help you when you're in a pinch for legal jargon. The dictionary contains over 1,000 legal terms, with more being added monthly.

Maryland Department of Correction Inmate Locator
Like other inmate locators, Maryland's site allows users to find out the housing location of individuals housed in the state's prison system. Just type in a name, and you'll find the name of the institution. You won't get any more information on the inmate, but you can read the history of the particular facility where he or she is housed.

IRS Political Organization Filing & Disclosure
If you're a political organization and you need to deal with the IRS, here's where you go. Users can actually login here to file tax forms, and the researcher can search for these filings by name, EIN, and type of form. If you're not satisfied with just searching them, you can download all of the disclosures in a self-contained database.

Office of Defects Investigation
Although Recalls.gov is probably the more comprehensive site, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation may be another resource to use, specifically with regard to automobiles and related products. You can perform searches for auto recalls by make, model, or year, and even find recall information for child safety seats and school buses. If you just want to download an entire file of recall information, you can do that, too -- it's updated weekly.

Court of Arbitration for Sport
I like the french appellation much better: Tribunal Arbitral Du Sport. The CAS is an institution that facilitates the settlement of sports-related disputes through arbitration or mediation by means of procedural rules adapted to the specific needs of the sports world. At this site you can read the rules of sports mediation or arbitration, recent decisions, and more.

Itching to host a meeting about something -- anything? Meetup can help. Find other groups with your interest, or start your own.

Well, that’s it for Issue #165 – 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.