Search engines vary widely in results

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Think most search engines deliver similar results? Think again. Today’s SearchEngineWatch reports on a new study that compared Ask Jeeves, Google, MSN Search and Yahoo, and found that the average overlap in their first-page results was just 1.1 percent. The survey found that 84.9 percent of all results were unique to a single search…

New site offers forums to discuss judges, courts

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An ambitious Web site launched today, Courthouse Forum, aims to be a one-stop shop in which to monitor, discuss and evaluate all of the nationÂ?s federal and state courts and judges. The site is built around a complex structure of separate forums for each jurisdiction and venue in the United States. The site’s founders…

Survey: Two-thirds of lawyers do pro bono

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For members of a profession often portrayed as greedy, it is nice to have evidence that proves otherwise. A survey released today finds that two thirds of U.S. lawyers gave free legal assistance to people of limited means and organizations serving the poor, volunteering an average of 39 hours of pro bono work a year.…

VersusLaw expands library, revises pricing

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Beginning Sept. 15, the legal research service VersusLaw will expand its library of federal district court opinions to include cases back to 1950. At the same time, it will raise the monthly prices of its premium and professional plans by $5. The monthly subscription to the premium plan will increase from $19.95 to $24.95…

Shamelessly seeking bike-a-thon sponsors

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My son and I made a last-minute decision to ride in a 28-mile bike-a-thon this weekend to help raise money to fight cancers in young adults. The event is in honor of an extraordinary 20-year-old man who died in April after a two-year battle with sarcoma.

We need sponsors. If anyone would like to pledge…

FindLaw to add blawg directory

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One other piece of news from my phone call with Scott Kinney, CEO of FindLaw: By the end of July, FindLaw will launch a directory of law-related blogs. It will be “an initial version,” with FindLaw continuing to add blogs “as rapidly as we can.”…

FindLaw CEO says links now accurate

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FindLaw CEO Scott Kinney called me today to discuss my survey last week showing the deterioration of FindLaw’s index of law-related Web sites. Kinney said that, as of Friday, the links were verified through a new content-management system and should now be 100 percent accurate.

A quick check showed there may still be some…