Internet Legal Research 79

Worksheet Web Site Evaluation Worksheet

Name of Site Site address

For the following information, use a scale of 0–2 for a high score of 14.

0=bad 1=good 2=very good

Information Is the information credible? Score Comments:

Is the information easy to find? Score Comments:

Is the information complete? Score Comments:

Is the information substantive? Score Comments: 80 CHAPTER 4

Technology Is the site easy navigate? Score Comments:

Is the site well maintained? Score Comments:

Is the site well designed? Score Comments: Internet Legal Research 81

Worksheet Comparison

Name and Site Address: Alta Vista (www..com) Search engine plus basic directory using LookSmart Search Options: Natural language question search. Simple search uses + and – and quotation marks. Permits searching in foreign languages, as well as specific image, audio, and video searching. Advanced search incorporates Boolean searching with either words or symbols. Also permits date limitations. Comments:

Name and Site Address: Ask Jeeves (www.ask.com) Meta search tool Search Options: Natural language question search. Supports quotation phrase searching. Comments:

Name and Site Address: (www.dogpile.com) Meta search tool plus directory Search Options: Simple search allows for quotation and parentheses phrase searching. It searches three search engines at a time until it finds at least ten hits. Permits specific image, audio, and news searching. Comments: 82 CHAPTER 4

Name and Site Address: (www.excite.com) Directory Search Options: Simple search uses + and – searching, as well as the “more like this” option for searching results. Advanced search is in a form that permits Boolean-like exclusions and inclusions, adult language filter, as well as language, country, and domain limits. Has separate advanced audio/video search and newsgroup search. Comments:

Name and Site Address: Google (www.google.com) Search Engine Search Options: Simple search defaults to all words. Automatically orders relevance of searches. Super simple interface. Comments:

Name and Site Address: HotBot (www..com) Search engine plus directory Search Options: Simple search lets you choose any words, all words, exact phrase, page title, person, URL links, and Boolean. Also allows time limits and requests for the inclusion of images, video, MP3, and JavaScript. Advanced search is in a form that allows the above with greater functionality, plus foreign language searching, word stemming (multiple word endings), and domain restrictions. Comments:

Name and Site Address: Mamma (www.mamma.com) Meta search tool Search Options: Simple search allows + and – operators, as well as news, MP3, audio, image, and video searching over eight search engines. Power search allows for phrase searching as well as a limit to the search engines used. Comments: Internet Legal Research 83

Name and Site Address: Metacrawler (www.metacrawler.com) Meta search tool plus directory Search Options: Simple search allows for any, all, and phrase searching, as well as Web and news- group limitations. Power search allows for limitations on search engines used and limits location of Web site. Comments:

Name and Site Address: Northern Light (www.northernlight.com) Search Engine Search Options: Simple search supports natural language searching. It also allows for full Boolean searching, field limitations (title, URL, etc.), source limitations. Power search form eases title, URL, and publication search. Also allows limitations of topic, document type, language, country, and date. Includes the highly useful US Government Search. Comments:

Name and Site Address: Webcrawler (www..com) Directory Search Options: Simple search supports natural language searching. Advanced search uses Boolean operators Comments:

Name and Site Address: Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) Directory Search Options: Simple search allows +, –, and quotation term indicators. Advanced search allows all, any, and phrase matching. Advanced search syntax allows Boolean search operators. Comments:

Internet Legal Research 85

Worksheet Specialty Search Tools Useful to the Legal Researcher

Name and Site Address: FindLaw (www.findlaw.com) Directory Search Options: Broad directory includes site all over the Web and a large quantity of proprietary information. Simple search uses Boolean AND, OR, NEAR (10 words), and NOT. Comments:

Name and Site Address: LawCrawler (www.lawcrawler.com) Search engine Search Options: Searches Web sites with legal information and is powered by Alta Vista. Simple search uses Boolean AND, OR, NEAR (10 words), and NOT. Comments:

Name and Site Address: The Law Engine (www.thelawengine.com) Directory Search Options: Straightforward one-page format to browse through topics Comments:

Name and Site Address: The Legal Engine (www.thelegalengine.com) Directory Search Options: Easy-to-use directory links you to major law sources on the Net. Works with FindLaw. Comments:

Internet Legal Research 87

Worksheet Internet Research Toolbox

Use this worksheet to comment on the Web sites featured in this chapter and to include information on your favorites. Website: Google (www.google.com) Favorite Features:

Comments:

Website: Alta Vista (www.altavista.com) Favorite Features:

Comments:

Website: Northern Light (www.northernlight.com) Favorite Features:

Comments: 88 CHAPTER 4

Website: Excite (www.excite.com) Favorite Features:

Comments:

Website: Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) Favorite Features:

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Website: Webcrawler (www.webcrawler.com) Favorite Features:

Comments: Internet Legal Research 89

Website: (www.infoseek.com) Favorite Features:

Comments:

Website: Metacrawler (www.metacrawler.com) Favorite Features:

Comments:

Website: FindLaw (www.findlaw.com) Favorite Features:

Comments: 90 CHAPTER 4

Website: Dogpile (www.dogpile.com) Favorite Features:

Comments:

Website: Ask Jeeves (www.ask.com) Favorite Features:

Comments:

Website: Washington State law Library (www.wa.gov/courts/lawlib/home.htm) Favorite Features:

Comments: