Take the newest search engine on the block for a spin. Launched today, Factery is not your father’s search engine: it doesn’t just throw up a raft of links. Instead it searches through a set of links to extract facts relevant to your query from the pages the links point to. At the moment, which is the alpha, experimental moment, Factery is pointed at those links that appear in Twitter and Yahoo Boss search results.

This is the kind of value added search functionality promised by semantic search engines — those that aim to understand syntax enough to recognize, in . . . [more]

From time to time here we’ve added to your information on information overload, a problem that seems particularly to bedevil lawyers — but then, when time is money, attention is costly and, so, to be jealously guarded. (One “pays attention,” after all.) Too, lawyers are by a professional deformation attached to the old ways, and therefore it may happen that their stare decisis becomes a stare inventiis. But lawyers aren’t the only ones, of course, who shake their heads (briskly) at all this newfangled twittering away of our lives; and some worriers step back a metaphorical league or two . . . [more]

Not sure if YouTube is your thing? Alabama trial attorney Lew Garrison has created a YouTube-like site for law-related video, called LegalTube. According to Law.com, the site was launched on September 1st after four months of development. It is billed as a video directory for finding lawyers, but in addition to advertising video, there is legal humour, courtroom stories, and a “webisode reality series” called Law After Dark. The site also has a news alert video series on drug recalls and class action lawsuits.

And in case you were wondering, LegalTube has its own channel on . . . [more]

Still doubtful about video as a marketing vehicle? A few recent milestones from YouTube, the leading site for video distribution, be it entertainment-related or professional:

• as of October, YouTube is now up to over a billion views each day
• as of May, at least 20 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute
• Increased high definition (HD) resolution is coming to YouTube starting this week. 1080p HD will be the new maximum resolution, up from the previous 720p HD. This is in response to the increasing resolution of consumer cameras. See the blog post for comparative examples.

Google is always releasing new features or apps. Here’s a rundown of some released recently that may have relevance for lawyers…

Google adds World Bank data

googleblog.blogspot.com… – Permalink – Similar

Now it’s possible to export your documents from Google Docs, removing one anxiety about working in this cloud. You can export up to 500 MB of data in a single zip file. You can export to a variety of document types.

Google uses feeds to find new sites

googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com… – Permalink – Similar

Google has built a Custom Search Wikipedia skin. If you have a Wikipedia account, log in . . . [more]

I’ve never pre-ordered a textbook until Melanie Bueckert’s “The Law of Employee Monitoring in Canada.”

This is no slight to Melanie’s fantastic background, but I didn’t expect much. Though there are exceptions, many privacy texts tend to be thin on substance, perhaps because the domain is evolving so quickly.

Given I had set my expectations low, I was delighted when I received Melanie’s text last month and discovered it included a thorough and deep discussion of the law of employee monitoring in Canada. This led me to introduce myself to Melanie, who is Legal Research Counsel at the Manitoba Court . . . [more]

Each year Technorati, the online service that indexes blogs throughout the Internet, dives deep to look at the world of blogs, bloggers and blogging in its annual State of the Blogosphere. This year Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra presented it as his keynote to the popular BlogWorld 2009 in Las Vegas in October. His assessment:

“The state of the blogosphere is strong.”

The report itself is published as a five-part series (plus introduction) with lots of easy-to-read graphs giving the overview of statistical findings:

• State of the Blogosphere 2009 Introduction
• Day 1: Who are the Bloggers?
• Day 2: The

The issue of technology in Canadian Courts is a favoured one at Slaw. Over the past few years there have been developments which hearten those who advocate for the place of technology in Canadian courts. In another positive sign it seems that some advocates in influential positions are making their feelings known. From a recent decision, 2009 CanLII 57448 (ON S.C.), para. 12,

…the time has come to recognize the stark reality that our court, for whatever reason, lags unacceptably behind in the use of electronic communications with our court users. Why this is so remains, for me, a

I have been asked (by an American colleague) if I know of any synopsis of “Canadian cybersecurity laws”. I am told that this expression means some mix analogous to the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, covering as well wiretaps, crimes, specific requirements for securing data. Core is private sector rather than critical infrastructure or national security.

It is conceivable that there is a chapter or more in the various collections of learning on IT or e-com law on the topic, which Canadian members of this blog are familiar with. Care to name them? Is there a book in Sunny . . . [more]

All the concerns about Google amassing information about users has led to the Internet giant deciding to be more transparent.

You can see a video of Google Dashboard here. The control panel lets you see what Google is collecting about you, and modify your preferences.

The Globe points out that some of the bigger privacy concerns, such as Street View, have still not been addressed. . . . [more]

I over-think and over-analyze every purchase I make, large or small. One of my favourite sources of information is Consumer Reports Magazine (www.comsumerreports.org).

The December issue arrived at home yesterday. It is “The Best New Electronics” issue and is perfectly timed for anyone thinking about a Christmas electronics purchase. They have tested and give ratings for 400+ hot new electronic products. They give basic info on the features you should consider and list the top performers and values. They have repair history ratings on some products, and tell you where to buy computers and electronics, and how to . . . [more]

Google’s new music search, Discover Music, has launched — but not in Canada. Partnering with imeem, lala, iLike, Pandora and Rhapsody, all music providing sites, Google will now determine whether your search has a musical aspect and, if so, throw up a result box that lets you listen to an excerpt of the music and choose to purchase it, if that is possible. There’s a video on the site linked to above that illustrates this.

Because of copyright issues, none of the partner providers is able to supply music online in Canada, and, consequently, Google’s . . . [more]