July 10, 2005

Welcome to Issue #196 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!

The newest WOW product from Google
A while back Google purchased Keyhole, a satellite mapping company. We soon learned one reason why, when Google added satellite images to its Google Maps feature. But that was just small change compared to Google Earth, a downloadable program that's just awesome to use. First, if you're using a dial-up connection, forget it. You'll need a high-speed connection to make use of this site. You can zoom all over the planet and see places you've never seen. You can even make use of Google's Local Search and Mapping Directions, to generate maps. I'm still playing with this thing (and wasting a lot of time, too!). For more on the new service, read Google Earth; Officially All Over the Map.

Google Gets MORE Personal
Gee, Google and Yahoo! can't let a day go by without trying to one-up the other, eh? Today we'll visit the new Google Personalized Search. It orders your search results based on what's most relevant to you. It's only going to work well if you have the Search History feature turned on -- that's how it figures out what's relevant to you. It's not quite as advanced as the Yahoo! MyWeb feature in terms of the fullness of its features, but it's certainly nifty.

Another Mapping Site Hits the 'Net
Eager to make use of its Local Search features, Amazon search engine A9 is now offering A9.com Maps. Just type in an address, and you'll get a larger map on the right, and a map you can zoom and pan on the left. If you check the box next to "Mark Streets with Block View," you'll be able to see if there are any photos from A9's Local Search available in the area. Not nearly as cool as Google Earth, and no way to get directions, but it's a start.

You Have 12 Minutes...
It used to be that you could go online with an unprotected Windows PC for twenty whole minutes without your computer being compromised by viruses, zombie attacks, or other types of hacks. Well, the bad folks have been improving their timing: now there's s 50 percent chance your unprotected Windows PC will be compromised within 12 minutes of going online.

Blawgs of the Week
Who knew intellectual property law could be funny? Well, a few people do, and it's being blogged about at IP Funny -- Intellectual Property Humor. The goal of //Blawg and Economics// is "to be the internet's number one blog, in both quality and readership." The blog promises to have something for everyone, "particularly if that somebody has an intense interest in Professor Hanson's Section 2 torts class." By the way, the blawgers are students at Harvard and Yale Law Schools. Steve is a law student at Willamette College of Law, and for some time now he has been writing the Angry Red Eyehole of Steve. Only two more years until graduation! Dave Austin is publishing the Benzene and Leukemia Law Blog, with news relating to "legal news and cases concerning Benzene and Leukemia, Myelodysplastic Syndrome, Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and Aplastic Anemia." he firm of Burke & Eisner is publishing over at its new lexBlog-created Cerebral Palsy Law Blog, which is dedicated to victims of Cerebral Palsy due to medical negligence. The National Arbitration Forum publishes news and events about arbitration, mediation, and other forms of alternative dispute resolution. Finally, A 40 year-old woman from Los Angeles is going back to law school, and she's blogging about it at Badgering the Witness. She urges you to "follow me through panic, fear, the LAST exam, application, failure, transcripts, rejection, loans, shame, humiliation, debt, financial aid...and that's before I even step foot on campus."

Caught in the 'Net

Do others think you're a spammer? Do you worry that your computer (or the computer of someone you love) has become a Zombie, spewing spam without your knowledge? Here's how to find out:

First, figure out your IP Address; you can do that at a site like WhatIsMyIP.com. Then use the DNSstuff Spam Database Lookup to see if the computer is listed on any spam blacklists.

I have noticed a marked decrease in the number of phishing e-mails I have received lately. To be sure, I am still receiving them -- I recently received one purportedly from Barclay Bank, warning me about "fake" e-mails purporting to be from Barclay Bank, and asking me to login with my Social Security number to confirm my account! Yeahrightsure....

However, if you are still unsure whether that official-looking e-mail you receive is legit, you would do well to check out the 10 Ways to Recognize Phisher Emails, from the Earthlink Protection Blog.

Searching No Longer a Lonely Exercise

I mentioned a few months ago that Yahoo! was unveiling a new MyWeb feature, that saves and personalizes your search history. Now Yahoo's taking it a step further, by introducing its My Web 2.0 Beta. As discussed in Search, with a little help from your friends from the folks at the Yahoo! Search Blog, anyone who uses the new My Web 2.0 can save, tag and share information with your friends, or the search community in general. Better yet, you can make the links you save there available to your friends, the world, or keep it private (to me, this is a definite improvement over del.icio.us bookmarks, which are available for the whole world to see.

The new My Web 2.0 also makes use of personalized search, powered by Yahoo!'s new MyRank Search Technology. The idea is that as the people you trust search on Yahoo! and add their recommended sites, you can come to rely on the shared knowledge of these people.

Very cool stuff -- but to my mind only truly useful if you actually have some friends who are willing to join your "MyWeb Search Community." So I'll make the first move -- anyone interested in joining in? I'll make the invites.

Google Video Search Update

Another week, another new release from Google. Actually, this came out last week, like all the other releases -- I just didn't feel like overloading you with Google-stuff all in one day.

Google Video Search has debuted its own free Google Video Viewer, which is designed to run on the Google search page. If you are searching for video, and there's a Play button next to a particular result, just click on it and the video will run directly on the page. The searches I ran turned up no video playback results, so check out the search results for Greenpeace for an example.

There's more on the new viewer at Google Adds Playback to Video Search at Search Engine Watch.

Help Desk

Whew! We're finally to Number 10 on our list of "Ten Things to Do Before You Call Tech Support." Without further ado:

#10: Back Up Your Data. Actually, this is a good tip for all times, not just when you get in trouble. But when you're on a tech support phone call, make sure you have backed up your most important documents, e-mail and other data before you start following directions. If you wind up having to reinstall your operating system. you'll be glad you did.

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!