Google Mini and Little Sheba the Hug Pug Puppy Photos & Fun

Hi Friends,

We just got a brand new 1U blue boxed Google Mini for full text indexing of a new database we are setting up. It took about an hour to get it out of the box, install and index our content set (although we are doing some extra work fixing up our search result templates and scripts to make the output real nice and pretty).

More on our content set later... for now, please enjoy some pictures of Little Sheba the Hug Pug and her newest bestest Google toy.

Little Sheba the Hug Pug and her new Blue Google Mini

Little Sheba the Hug Pug and her new Blue Google Mini

Little Sheba the Hug Pug and her new Blue Google Mini

Little Sheba the Hug Pug and her new Blue Google Mini


And a few Google Mini notes: The Google Mini is very easy to install - open box, turn on, set IP addresses, select URL to index, click mouse, check indexing status. If you want your own machine with Google search software to index 100,000 documents for only $2999... visit the Google Mini Site... and be sure to read the Google Mini Legal Services Success Stories or other industry Google Mini success stories. We hope to be one ourselves some day :)


Peace - Tim & Sheba

iTunes :: Wanna Be Your Dog, Back to the Noise by Iggy & The Stooges

Google Video Offers TV Shows and Marketing Avenues for Lawyers

Earlier this week, Google unveiled its latest enhancements to Google Video, a searchable collection of online video content.

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My favorite new feature is that Google Video now enables users to view videos online without downloading any Google software - specifically Windows-only software. So, Macintosh users can now watch videos - including the pilot of Everybody Hates Chris - on Google Video using Firefox or Safari.

Are there any marketing possibilities for lawyers using Google Video? Well, it appears that some law firms are already exploring this area. A search for mesothelioma returned informational videos from two law firms as the top results.

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For now, the number of videos in Google's collection remains low, meaning that it will certainly be easier to rank higher for the search term mesothelioma in the Google Video search results than in the regular Google web search results. We'll have to see whether law firms will adopt online video advertising in the same manner that they have embraced TV advertising.

New Google Blog Search and Finding a Lawyer Blawg with Google, MSN and Yahoo!

Searching for a law-oriented web log (or "blog") is not a straight-forward process. The standard search engines offer a number of different ways to locate a blog, which we will compare with the new Google Blog Search that came out today.

To show you how to track down a blog, let's continue from yesterday's post on the Supreme Court. I'll run a number of searches for blogs on the Supreme Court and compare the results.

Google / Yahoo! / MSN - Supreme Court Blog

First, I ran a search for supreme court blog on Google, Yahoo! and MSN. The two top contenders among the search results are SCOTUSblog and Supreme Court Blog.

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I've summarized the results in the table below.

Web SiteGoogle RankYahoo! RankMSN Rank
SCOTUSblog #1, #5, #6 #2, #7 #7, #10
Supreme Court Blog #2, #3 #1, #4 #1, #2

SCOTUSblog ranked higher on Google, while Supreme Court Blog ranked higher on Yahoo! and MSN. However, when reviewing the two web sites, I noticed that the posts on SCOTUSblog, which is sponsored by Goldstein & Howe, P.C., were more up-to-date and relevant. SCOTUSblog is currently covering the nomination hearings of Chief Justice nominee John Roberts, Jr.

Supreme Court Blog, on the other hand, includes only 2 posts from 2005, both on Supreme Court figurines and bobbleheads. The blog does include more substantive commentary, but these are from October of 2004. Overall, not quite befitting its #1 ranking on Yahoo! and MSN.



Google - RSS Search

Next, I ran a search for supreme court but limited the results to rss feeds by adding filetype:rss to the search term. The theory behind this is that blogs often offer an rss feed of their posts. However, the results from this search were not particularly fruitful.

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MSN - Feed Search

MSN also offers a feed search. To specify a feed search, I added feed: before my search term (e.g., feed:"supreme court"). As you can see below, MSN returned a mix of news feeds and blog feeds.

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Google - Blog Search

Finally, I tested Google's recently unveiled Google Blog Search.

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I ran a search for supreme court using Google Blog Search. As you can see from these results, Google Blog Search returns blog postings that match your search terms. You can also sort these results by relevance and by date. So, if you are looking for a blog on a particular topic, stick with the regular Google search. If you are looking for a blog posting on a particular topic, try out the new Google Blog Search.

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A few notes about the Google Blog Search from Tim

  1. You can find Google Blog Search at http://blogsearch.google.com or for those who would like a blogger look and feel the url is: http://search.blogger.com/

  2. There is a Google Blog Search FAQ here: http://www.google.com/help/about_blogsearch.html
  3. Google Blog Search only searches the feeds, not the sites

    If you want your full post indexed, you need to setup an RSS 2.0 or ATOM feed with the full post text (this is relatively easy to do, although many Blawgers are not currently doing it)//
  4. You can Ping your Blog post to Google using current services

    If you want Google Blog Search to index your blog make sure to ping weblogs.com or blo.gs. You can set this up in your software, or

    you can do it manually (or by way of a bookmark that is reloaded) at http://pingomatic.com/

    and note: you can also automatically use pingomatic.com, which pings a bunch of sites, by adding in http://rpc.pingomatic.com/ as a URL to ping in your blog software
  5. Not Just Blogs are Indexed Google Blog Search actually indexes more than blogs, it also indexes RSS and ATOM feeds from news papers and any other site that is updated regularly (eg non-blogs like http://auto-recalls.justia.com :).
  6. Read more information about Google's Google Blog Search at Search Engine Watch or the Google Blog, or just do a Google Blog Search on "Google Blog Search".

Lawyer Blogs and Law Firm Blogs: United States Supreme Court Focus

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Last year, I paid a visit to the United States Supreme Court during the "off season." Oral arguments had already been concluded for the term. There weren't too many people around—at least in the public areas—except for tourists and busloads of children on field trips. It was a quiet summer.

This year, the Supreme Court has taken a different path with the conditional resignation of Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and the subsequent passing of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. With a historic opportunity to re-shape the nation's highest court, President Bush has been receiving plenty of unsolicited advice from both sides of the aisle. Now that the Senate confirmation hearings for John Roberts, Jr. are underway, those seeking their daily fix of US Supreme Court news and commentary can visit the following blogs.

  • ACSBlog. From the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.
  • Balkinization. Commentary on law, poitics and culture. By Professor Jack M. Balkin of Yale Law School.
  • Campaign for the Supreme Court. Blog on the politics and strategy of the appointment battle. From the Washington Post.
  • How Appealing. Covers appellate litigation. From Legal Affairs.
  • Inside Scoop. Supreme Court blog. A project of the Alliance for Justice.
  • Law Profesor Blogs. Includes blogs on criminal law, media law and more.
  • Legal Theory Blog. Covers recent scholarship in jurisprudence, law and philosophy, law and economic theory, and theoretical work in substantive areas. By Professor Lawrence Solum of the University of San Diego Law School.
  • LiveCurrent. Commentary on the Supreme Court. From the Los Angeles Times.
  • The Oyez Supreme Court Podcast. Features podcasts of US Supreme Court oral arguments.
  • SCOTUSblog. Features live coverage of the Roberts confirmation hearings as well as regular commentary on the Supreme Court. From Goldstein & Howe, P.C.
  • Volokh Conspiracy. By Professor Eugene Volokh of UCLA School of Law.
  • Underneath Their Robes. Features news, gossip and commentary on the federal judiciary.
  • U.S. Supreme Court Blog. Offers summaries and commentaries on Supreme Court cases.

Hurricane Katrina Web Resources - News, Missing Persons, Publications

Since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, I have been absolutely shocked by the magnitude of destruction left in her wake. In California, we've experienced our share of natural disasters, including the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. While the damage from that earthquake was extensive, it did not force the evacuation of a major American city or disperse countless families into neighboring states away from their homes, possessions and careers. The manpower, resources and infrastructure needed to handle such a mass migration is unfathomable.

Hurricane Katrina also demonstrated the limitations of our current technologies. Once the power shuts down, the cellular phones go down as well. And, without a communication system in place, the process of contacting family members or coordinating relief efforts proves to be exponentially more challenging.

Fortunately, many Web sites have emerged in the past few days to help survivors reconnect with their family members. Let me share with you some Web sites that I've visited to keep up with Hurricane Katrina news.

Charities

  • American Red Cross. The American Red Cross is one of the organizations leading relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina victims. You can make an online donation from their web site. The Red Cross also features an RSS Feed of current news and press releases.
  • Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. Established by former Presidents Bush and Clinton to provide relief and rebuilding resources to help the victims of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
  • GuideStar.org. Provides a database of nonprofit organizations, including program descriptions and income tax returns. Free registration required.
  • Habitat for Humanity. Raising funds to help low-income families recover and rebuild.
  • The Salvation Army. The Salvation Army is providing services to storm survivors and first responders in the Gulf Coast states and is also accepting online donations online.
  • Second Harvest. Distributes food and grocery products. Online donation available.
  • Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund. Serves as the state's central clearinghouse for corporations, organizations, and individuals to donate money, equipment, goods, services, volunteers, and time to Mississippians recovering and rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina.

Missing Persons

National News

Regional News

Maps and Aerial / Satellite Photos

Federal Government

State and Local Government

Courts

Bar Associations

Publications

Animal Rescue

Additional Resources