Mapping Office Locations of Your Law Firm - 360 Degree Views Using Google Maps
Do your clients have difficulty finding your law firm? A few years ago, just listing your street address may have been enough. Then, businesses started offering links to MapQuest or screen captures from Yahoo! Maps. And, that was help.
Well, Google unveiled the lastest upgrade in maps by allowing you to embed Google Maps on your own web site through the Google Maps API. This is a fully-functional version that lets you zoom in and zoom out, drag the map in any direction you want, switch between street map and satellite views, and also create your own custom icon — whether that's your law firm logo, an image of your building, or even your company puppy.
You can now offer clients looking for your law firm 360 degree views including nearby landmarks to help them find their way.
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Submit your BlawgCast to Apple's iTunes Music Store PodCast Section
Hi Friends,
As I noted in my previous post on PodCasts, Apple was planning to add PodCast support into the iTunes Music Store. Well that day has arrived! And you can now submit your own PodCasts to the Apple iTunes Music Store, where others can find them for play on iTunes or their iPod.
And with a PodCast leader like iPodder Adam Curry onboard... well you know this is a winner for Apple.
Here is the PodCast section of the Apple iTunes Music Store. And in the middle of the page you will see a graphic "Publish a Podcast" to click on to add your own PodCast feed.
You then just click on the link, submit your feed and... if Apple okays it, your feed will be on the Apple iTunes Music Store and available for iTunes users everywhere!!! Click here to submit your PodCast feed to the iTunes Store now. (for those who want more tech details, here is a PDF file with technical RSS 2.0 specifications from Apple).
I would strongly encourage everyone who has a PodCast/BlawgCast to submit it to the Apple Music store, as this will likely become a major distribution means for PodCasts.
Here are some related links to the Apple Music Store Pod Cast Announcement
- Apple Press Release on PodCasting and the iTunes Music Store
- MacRummors.com - which aggregates the higher quality rumors and confirmed Apple news
- MacSurfer - has all of the headlines from the various Apple news and rumor sites
- CNET on iTunes Music Store PodCasting (and color iPods)
And of course Mac users should join the MacLawyers Yahoo! Group and visit their Web site. And for those who need a break from finding their law firm 360 degree view from space - all of the standard sized iPods now have color screens, so listen in color :)
Peace - Tim
:: Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
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Finding Your Law Firm - 360 Degree Views as Google Goes Global
A few months ago, Tim Stanley blogged on the incorporation of satellite images into Google maps. (See Google adds Satellite Images to Google Maps). At the time, these satellite images were just a local feature – local to Americans, that is. Well, Google has gone global so now you may be able to find 360 degree views of all your law firm offices whether they are located in the Bay State or in Beijing.
Here's a photo of Beijing with Tiananmen Square in the center. A lot of law firms are located in Oriental Plaza, which is just down the street.
Of course, finding popular landmarks is more fun than finding law firm offices overseas. Here are links to the Eiffel Tower and Guantanamo Bay.
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Research Tips for Finding Information Hidden from the Major Search Engines
Google proudly displays the number of web pages contained within its index. At 8 billion pages and counting, this potentially represents an immense quantity of useful information. Indeed, Google is well suited for finding all sorts of arcane trivia tucked into the many recesses of the web.
However, web researchers already recognize that the quantity of data is only one factor. If the information you are searching for is not within one of the 8 billion pages in Google's index, you're out of luck.
For example, let's look at securities filings. Google surprisingly returns Canada's SEDAR as the first result (gasp!) and the SEC's EDGAR as the second result. Sacre bleu! Despite French protestations, it turns out that the Internet really is a tool for foisting Canadian (and not American) values and culture onto the world. :-)
All kidding aside, while Google will point you to the SEC's web site, this only represents a first albeit incomplete step since the contents of the securities filings are not included in the Google index. This is true even though these securities filings are freely accessible online and are not sequestered in a password-protected section of the web site. So, you cannot search for every mention of a particular executive within a company's securities filings through Google. However, the fault for this omission lies with the SEC and not with Google, Yahoo or MSN. For some reason, the SEC has set-up a robots.txt file to hide securities filings and other files from search engines. Unfortunately, this effectively banishes securities filings to the Deep Web. So, on one hand, the SEC promotes the disclosure of important corporate data to investors; however, on the other hand, the SEC itself hides the disclosures it receives from the search engines - the usual way people go about finding information.
That's why when I searched for berkshire hathaway securities filings, Google returned the copies from Hoover's Online, and the SEC's own copies are no where to be found. Unfortunately, Hoover's also blocks search engines from indexing the contents of its securities filings as well. So, Google can tell you that Hoover's Online has a copy of Berkshire Hathaway's securities filings, but cannot tell you what is inside them.
As a result, researchers have to go through the circuitous route of looking through each individual securities filing to track down the information they need or pay one of the subscription services which offers the ability to conduct full-text searches of securities filings. For those only interested in material contracts, Onecle has extracted thousands of business contracts from securities filings and these are all freely accessible, as well as searchable from Google.
In other search engine news, this week, Yahoo! announced Yahoo! Search Subscriptions - a new service for searching through subscription content. While Yahoo! Search Subscriptions is currently only configured to search through Consumer Reports, Forrester Research, FT.com, IEEE, the New England Journal of Medicine, TheStreet.com and the Wall Street Journal right now, Yahoo! states that its search engine will add Lexis-Nexis and other subscription content at a later time. Let's see how well this new service works so far by using three different approaches to locate Kozlowski in the Wall Street Journal.
Using Google, a search for Kozlowski on the Wall Street Journal site returns 6 results.
If I run the same search using Yahoo! Search Subscriptions, I get 20 matching results. Interestingly, if I ran a search for Kozlowski using the regular Yahoo! Search instead of Yahoo! Search Subscriptions, I only get back 2 matching results from the Wall Street Journal.
The final test is running a search for Kozlowski on the Wall Street Journal site itself. And the winner is...the Wall Street Journal with 120 matching results. This shows you how much content still remains out-of-reach of the major search engines. Google may have over 8 billion web pages stored in its index, but it isn't omniscient (yet). Not by a long shot!
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Legal Marketing Blogs' Headlines - the Latest Legal Marketing Blog Posts Updated Throughout the Day
Hi Friends,
The Justia gang has listed a set of the legal marketing blogs (and few other selected blogs that periodically mention legal marketing) we like to read and has set up a site of links to their most recent posts (updated throughout the day and night). The URL is
The idea is to give you a quick overview of today's legal marketing news as determined by the experts, maybe find a post or blog that interests you that you have not seen, and then a link to the blog so you can subscribe to that blog directly (also note - this is a first version, and we will be improving this site over time).
We list the latest headlines of the different blogs ordered by date/time. Each headline simply links to a blog's post. If you are in the archive and want to be on the top of the list... simply make a new blog post.
We list the blogs currently in the index on the side with links to the blogs themselves.
Lawyer Marketing Blogs
Here are the legal marketing blogs we are starting this site out with...
- Bruce Allen's Marketing Catalyst
- Larry Bodine's Professional Marketing Blog
- HTMLawyer's Micah Buchdahl's The Marketing Attorney Blog
- Ken Chan & Tim Stanley with Justia's Legal SEO Blog
- Lawyers Court's Chris Costa's Legal Search Marketing
- Philip Franckel's Lawyer Advertising Blog
- Sanestorm Marketing's Andy Havens' Legal Marketing Blog
- Tom Kane's Legal Marketing Blog
- Mark Merenda - Smart Blog
- Morningstar Multimedia - Law Firm Marketing
- LexBlog's Kevin O'Keefe Legal Marketing with Lawyer Blogs Blog
- Ed Poll- Lawbiz Blog
If there are additional legal marketing blogs out there that we should link to, please email us and we will add the RSS feed. We are looking for blogs that are focused on providing marketing news, information and commentary, not just the marketing of a firm's products or services (although having periodic marketing, like our FindLaw FirmSite to Justia Web Site post is okay with us :).
Selected Legal Technology, Marketing and Puppy Blogs
We have added a few legal technology and information blogs (the four we read everyday - beSpacific, The Common Scold, LawSites and the [non]billable hour ). There are many more we could add, but we did not want to overwhelm the list with non-marketing posts.
We have the official search engine blogs (Ask Jeeves, Google, MSN and Yahoo!), and one general marketing blog (Seth Godin's Blog - because we like his books). In reality we actually read many more general marketing and SEO blogs, but again to add them all would dominate the listings, and you would miss out on the "legal" marketing uniqueness of the more focused blogs.
If you have a general marketing, legal technology or legal information blog that has legal marketing information and you add/have a legal marketing category, then we would be happy to add or help you set up a category specific feed (easy to do in Movabletype or WordPress, harder to do with Blogger and TypePad. For Blogger and TypePad, see Richard Akerman Science Library Pad post on using Blogdigger for category based RSS feeds).
Finally we have included my puppy Little Sheba the Hug Pug's blog, simply because... I like my dog. And once again, the URL for the list of legal blog marketing headlines is http://blogs.justia.org/
Peace - Tim
:: Listen to Her Heart, You're Gonna Get It! by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
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FindLaw FirmSite -> Justia Law Firm Web Site :: Justia Web Site Design Before & After
Hi Friends,
A picture is worth a 1000 words...
BEFORE: FindLaw FirmSite (Thomson-FindLaw West Firm Site)
AFTER: Justia Law Firm Web Site
We made this new Web site for Wilson & Wilson, a LaGrange, Illinois Law Firm.
Wilson & Wilson services include estate planning, probate and estate administration, elder law and other services in the Chicago area. They also help set up Special Needs Trust and Supplemental Needs Trusts for families with disabled children.
Given Wilson & Wilson's target audience, we added in some additional accessibility features, such as optional white on black text and the ability to change the font sizes.
If you would like your own "After" version of this Before & After Web site example, feel free to call us at 888.587.8421 or contact us online.
Peace - Tim
:: Wishing You Were Here, The Very Best of Chicago - Only the Beginning by Chicago
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PodCasts - Directories for Legal PodCasts (BlawgCasts), Software, How-to and... Adam Curry
Hi Friends,
I was working on setting up some PodCasts to be added to Stark & Stark's Web site by way of their LexBlog produced New Jersey Law Blog and Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog and thought I would share some of the basic information (search Google on PodCasting for more information :).
WHAT IS PODCASTING First, let's go to the Wikipedia for a definition of Podcasting. In short:
Podcasting is a way of publishing sound files to the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed and receive new audio files automatically. Podcasting is distinct from other types of audio content delivery because it uses the RSS 2.0 file format. see Wikipedia.org for more information.
Basically you upload an audio or media file somewhere on the net, and then place a link (enclosure tag) to it in your RSS file. The RSS file also has the description, file size and other info needed to help to help the user to download the file.
Here is an actual Legal PodCast!
Click the PodCast icon to subscribe to Oyez - US Supreme Court Multimedia Resources Website's PodCast.
PROMOTING YOUR PODCASTS - PODCAST DIRECTORIES Now to promote your PodCast... Let's start with Adam Curry - Mac User - who has set up a directory I use called iPodder.org, where you can have your RSS 2.0 feed listed in the PodCast Directory... and it is just one of many PodCast directories to find and submit your PodCast.
You should submit your Legal PodCasts to:
Justia's BlawgSearch.com's PodCast Lsistings
Blawg.com's list of legal PodCasts
BlawgCast - yes finally a site totally focused on legal PodCasts! Let them know about your Pod/BlawgCast!
Digitial PodCast - Politics & Government listings
PodCast.net Crime & Law PodCast listings
PodCastDirectory.com - put in the key words "law" and "legal"
PodCast Alley - put in the key words "law" and "legal"
Podcasting News - Law Listings
I am sure there are more, email me and I will edit/update this post :)
Yahoo! has some additional Media RSS markup that they would like audio people to use to help position it within the Yahoo! their Video and upcoming Audio Search.
Now to the basics...
PODCAST SOFTWARE
There are many free software applications for finding and listening to PodCasts. (I use iPodder) although Steve Jobs announced that iTunes will soon support PodCasts. Here is some more software that works with the iPodder.org PodCast directory.
YOUR PODCAST - WHERE TO UPLOAD YOUR AUDIO FILE
Audio files can be large, and they can lead to large bandwidth charges... but there is a nice non-evil place where you can upload your files for free and not pay for bandwidth...
OurMedia.org provides free storage for audio, video, text... anything, provided you own it and do not mind it being publicly disseminated. In any case, it is the best place to upload your audio files if you do not want to be worried about bandwidth and storage space.
HOW TO CREATE YOUR RSS 2.0 PODCAST FEED
Rather than repeat the steps, I am just going to give the links :)
MovableType - Brandon Fuller has written a MovableType plug-in MT-Enclosures with instructions on how to set it up.
WordPress - just upgrade to WordPress 1.5 and then read this post...
TypePad - Just use FeedBurner's SmartCast. Read about here on the FeedBurner forums on SmartCast. Rick Klau works there - reason enough for law firms to use FeedBurner's SmartCast.
Blogger - here are some how to instructions or use FeedBurner's SmartCast.
And there are a number of services that help make it easier as well... such as AudioBlog.com.
ODDS AND ENDS
There are number of PodCasting Meetup groups. You can find some of them on Podcasting.Meetup.com.
Read these instructions to get your MP3 PodCast onto BitTorrent (read Andy Haven's post on BitTorrent and the future of Law Firm downloadable media files...
You can turn your PodCast into a CLE course - as noted by Bob Ambrogi in writing about our local Santa Clara Bar Association's CLE PodCasts.
And although Monica listens to XM Radio that Rocks with Baseball... Adam Curry's satellite radio show called PodShow is on Sirius.
Okay... there are another 8,450,000 pages in Google with the word PodCast... most of which have interesting PodCasts and/or PodCast technology details, like what recording equipment to use, how to make an mp3 file and more...
Peace - Tim
:: Hickory Wind, Sweetheart of the Rodeo (Legacy Edition) by The Byrds
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