February 5, 2006

Welcome to Issue #222 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!

Google News Out of Beta?
Can it be that Google News is out of beta after only three years? It's true, according to And Now, News. And to celebrate the graduation from beta status, Google has introduced news recommendations. Now, when you're signed into your Google account, you can receive recommended news stories based on the previous stories you have read. You'll see the "Recommended" link on the left, under the Top Stories link. I'm still trying it out, but I'm not quite sure how the recommended news items relate to the previously-searched-for stories.

State of the Union Archive
In preparation for this past week's State of the Union Address, many researchers checked out the State of the Union Addresses of the American Presidents from askSam. They have provided access to the full text of all State of the Union addresses from 1790-2005. And it's searchable, too.

Sending a Large File -- Choose Your Service
A while ago I mentioned YouSendIt, which allows people to send extremely large files to others without having to use e-mail, which doesn't usually like big attachments. Now it seems like everyone's getting into the act, and CreativeGuy's keeping track. Here's a page of Free Online File Storage and Sending sites -- lots of good choices here, if you need to send big files.

Watch the News in a Cloud
Have you caught the tagging bug? Yes? No? I have been using social bookmarking services like del.icio.us, and I find tagging a useful way of categorizing sites. However, I don't really use the "tag cloud" feature. If you do, maybe you'll like Newzingo, which displays the current Google News headlines in a tag cloud. It's definitely a good way of measuring the big news at any given time.

Office Depot -- Office Supplies...and webinars?
It's true. Office Depot has created the Web Cafe, a "free, web-based seminar series focused on successful business strategies." The January series has titles including "Shape Up Your Office with the Five-Day Office Makeover Plan," "From Bad to Great: Transforming Your PowerPoint Presentations," "Easy Ways to Keep Track of the Money," and "What You Need to Know About Data Security." These are great topics for solo/small firms, or for anybody who wants to learn a little more about running a business. And did I mention they're free?

Blawgs of the Week(s)
Here's a selection of the best law-related weblogs I've covered during the past two weeks: first, the New Jersey (and Florida) firm of Bagolie Friedman wants to give you the answers and help you get justice if you are hurt at work, develop a job-related cancer or are injured by a defective medical device. That's why they're blogging at the Workers Comp Law Blog. It has been awhile since I featured a blog from the Law Professor Blogs Network. The Family Law Prof Blog is hosted by Barbara Glesner Fines (University of Missouri-Kansas City), Robert E. Oliphant (William Mitchell College of Law), and Nancy Ver Steegh (William Mitchell College of Law). Lydia Loren at the Lewis & Clark Law School is blogging about copyright, privacy, and other issues at LC CyberBlog. Frederick Focke Mischler is the self-titled blog of an Ohio lawyer that deals with accounting, tax, and legal issues that face businesses and business owners in that state. The topics covered here include "estate planning, federal, state, and local taxation, business start up and corporation law, financial concepts for businesses and individuals, business planning, and real estate."

The Wall Street Journal has a Law Blog; Peter Lattman is a former litigator-turned journalist, and he (along with some of the other reporters/editors at the WSJ) is writing about law, business, and the business of law. Some unknown tech lawyers who literally call themselves "unknown tech lawyers" are "saving the world, one posting at a time, at Technonymous Doctiloquus. They're blogging about the topics of business, technology, the law, intellectual property, and the place where they all intersect -- the Internet. Here's another law practice management-type blog, courtesy of the State Bar of Minnesota. Technically Legal features notes and tips about computers and other technology used in law practice, for the benefit of Minnesota State Bar Association members. But since there's no registration required here, it's really for everyone's benefit. My ABA TECHSHOW buddy and training expert extraordinaire Adriana Linares loves technology, and she's proving it at I Heart Tech, where she discusses technology tips and advice for a lawyer's life and business (and other people, too). And I'm not just mentioning her because there's a picture of me on the right menu bar, just below the fold -- but it's awful nice of her to put me there. Last but not least, Gianpaolo Panusa is a Canadian immigration lawyer and the founder of the PanCanadian Immigration Law Group. He's discussing his area of practice at the appropriately-titled Canada Immigration.

Caught in the 'Net

Like PBS for the Internet

One of the founders of Wikipedia launched a new venture this month, and it's pretty cool. It's called Digital Universe, and Larry Sanger describes it as "a set of portals, each defined by a topic, such as the planet Mars. And from each portal, there will be links to the best resources on the Web, including a lot of resources of different kinds that are prepared by experts and the general public under the management of experts."

As the Digital Universe evolves, it will be managed a little like Wikipedia, in that its founders expect that members of the public will be able to work on the content, but their work will be managed by experts.

Access to the Digital Universe is free, but to get to the good stuff you have to download the "ManyOne Navigator," which is built on Mozilla and reminds me a lot of the Netscape browser. Once you register and login, you'll be taken to a page of "Today's Featured Portals." They include Energy, National Parks, The Earth, Arctic, Education Innovation, Nanotechnology, Texas Environment, Solar System, and Recycling.

When you click on a portal, you're taken to a main page for that subject, and additional resources are available on the sidebar to the right. At the Energy portal, for example, you'll find links to News, Organizations, People, Timelines, Periodicals, Research Tools, and Services -- all about energy. The browser also features tabs, so you can keep multiple pages open in the same window.

I have to say that this is an awesome tool -- tons of resources at your fingertips, and all free. Better yet, this is only the beginning -- the Digital Universe will only continue to grow. Give it a look.

Here's a tip for you Excel users out there (I know there must be a few). Do you have a list of items in a spreadsheet that you want to easily switch to a different direction -- to switch items from a row (horizontal) to a column (vertical), or vice versa? Not a problem. Just select your list of items and copy that list. Then from the Edit menu, select Paste Special, and check the box marked Transpose. Then click OK. Voila!