Novalawcity

Bing vs. Google

Bing vs. Google is a great new resource that allows you to search both Bing and Google, and lets you compare the results. You can format the results as a split screen, either horizontally or vertically; you can also look at only Google results or only Bing's. Just one minor inconvenience about the split screens: each half appears to have its own scroll bar, but they don't operate independently; scrolling up or down on one automatically moves the other as well. Because related searches are displayed on the top left portion of the screen in Bing, and at the bottom of the screen in Google, it's really hard to compare those, unless you have a photographic memory! Over all, however, this is a very useful site that can help you find what you might be missing by using only one of these two search engines.

THELAW.NET

This now-venerable tool for lawyers, found at TheLaw.net, looks like a useful, cost-effective research source for the practicing bar.  Its usefulness positions it as a low-cost rival to Westlaw and LexisNexis.  Costs range from $575 annually for 1 lawyer to $1995 for 5 lawyers.  It bills its search engine as modeled on Google's, confined to pre-selected databases to avoid irrelevant search returns.  Those databases include:  statutes, rules, forms, news, courts, administrative law, executive, legislatures, topics, bars (one of which is Half-Norwegian on mother's side!), and internet.

Coverage of federal courts is back to 1 U.S. 1, 1 Fed. 2d 1, 1 B.R. 1.  State court coverage begins in 1950.  Using the system requires downloading and installing their proprietary LawNet Equalizer 7.0 software.  A head-to-head comparison with Westlaw using a TheLaw.net suggested search (Federal Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, search for cases containing the phrase "alternate bid") found that TheLaw.net had some advantages over Westlaw.  Right on the search results page it shows you which case is most relevant, and how many times that case has been cited.

Bottom line:  not a tool for an academic law library, as it would duplicate databases already available there, but definitely worth a look for the practicing bar.

 

 

 

Customize Your Search Using Google

Google has a feature that lets you cut down on the sometimes overwhelming number of results you get from a query.  It can be useful if yours is a specialized area of research and you want to exclude irrelevant sites from your search. 

Go to the Google main page, at google.com  At the top of the page, click on more, and below that on even more.  On the page that comes up, under Search, click on Custom Search.  On the next page, click on Create a Custom Search Engine.  You fill in the name you have decided to give your search engine, its description, the language you want to use, etc., then you paste in the sites you want to search.  In my test case, I created a search engine to search banking law research guides from various law school libraries.  When I tried out my search engine with a search for "comptroller," it returned three pages, each of which contained my search term. 

Google also lets you collaborate, inviting others to contribute to refining your search engine.  To access your customized google search, you can use the widget Google provides to add its box to your iGoogle page - it doesn't appear on the Google main page. 

Bing Has Lots of Microsoft Bling

I have to say that I began looking at Bing , Microsoft's attempt to become a search destination rather than an accidental tourist repellent ("Oh no, I'm using the MSN search function, what happened to my Google Search Bar?"), predisposed against it.  The reports of how much money Microsoft had spent developing it primed me to expect something baroque and non-utilitarian.  To a certain extent, those expectations were fulfilled. 

I did an image search for Franz Kafka (it's been that kind of week) on Bing and on Google.  At first glance, Google results and Bing results were remarkably similar, but Google found 447,000 results, while Bing returned 65,500.  Does this mean that Bing did a better job of screening out duplicate images, or that it didn't do as thorough a job of searching?  Hard to say. 

Bing's first 730 results were all on one extremely lengthy page, so lengthy, in fact, that some of the images never loaded.  Google, on the other hand, showed 18 images per page, so repeated clicking through was necessary to see the next set of images.  Google's images sit quietly on the page, Bing's swoop forward at you like the mad scientist in early 3-D movies.  The information provided is the same.  I did appreciate the Bing feature that enabled me to give them feedback on the images - I let them know that the picture of the dahlia was non-responsive. 

Bing won the numbers game in finding Franz Kafka videos.  Both engines drew heavily on YouTube, as one might expect.  The major observable difference here was that the videos on Bing don't wait for you to click on them, they start to life as you mouse over them.  Is this feature an improvement?  It is raising some fair use issues - where in many cases, Google sends you to the referring sites, saying that you can't play the video on Google, Bing merrily plays them all. 

First impression:  interesting, but not a Google-killer.

Want a Web Site that Does Calculus?

Have I got a site for you!  Try Wolfram|Alpha .  It's a whiz at math, and knows where all your genes are (handy if you habitually keep them in a pile on your bedroom floor).  It can tell you the phase of the moon and what time the sun set on the day you were born.  This site finds, then manipulates, data.  As others have pointed out, though, it's not at all useful for legal research.  Inputting "mortgage-backed securities" resulted in the rather pathetic admission, "Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input," the strong implication being that I had upset its little tummy.  I typed in "lemon law" and got a rather humorous demographic break-down of the people in the United States with each of those nouns as a surname.  Law was in 1037th place, Lemon in 2283rd place.  Wolfram|Alpha may make it unnecessary for any human ever to do math again, but it won't help you with fee simple. 

Search with RedZee

RedZee search engine displays thumbnails of websites results in a graphical arch of information. Warning: Addictive. Check out the Beta RedZee.

Something Old, Something New, Something Complimentary for You

Curious if your favorite Thomson West publication has a new edition on the horizon?  Check out the West Academic Faculty Online Store.  A keyword or advanced search will alert you to newer editions and estimated dates of availability.  Professors can also request a complimentary copy of a text that interests them.  Be sure to read the fine print.  Although, in this case the print is fairly large.

Government Holiday Ornaments

From the government search engine usa.gov, you may want to buy your ornaments this year from the Federal Government; featured are White House and Capitol Building Ornaments, as well as the 24-karate Treasury Department ornament for the tree. More 

Tracking Search Terms on Google

After reading Slaw recently, I discovered Google Trends. This is a graphical interface showing Google search terms logged and news items indexed over the last four years.  Here are some trends I found interesting:

Law Library as search term is in steady decline

Westlaw and Lexis spike as search terms almost simultaneously, but Lexis is searched for more than Westlaw

AALL is increasingly popular as a search terms after a wild start.

UN Data - new search tool for statistics

The United Nations now has a unified statistical database search engine. The search interface supports keyword searching across multiple databases. UNdata