Yahoo! (yahoo.com) has changed the look of its homepage.

It now has only has only one filter bar instead of two (to filter your results to News, Finance, etc.). Additionally, when you click More from the homepage, you no longer see a drop-down menu appearing with more filter options.

Instead, you are taken to a page listing Products and Services (Answers, Groups, Shopping, Dating, etc.) to use as filters.

In a related move, the company has also changed the look of its Search.Yahoo.com homepage. Instead of a white background with a search box, it now also displays an image, but is still less distracting than Yahoo.com.

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Updated: November 13, 2016

Many paid legal research products such as LexisNexis and Westlaw offer the ability to search for keywords within a certain number of words from one another (a number that you define). For example, some pay databases allow you to search w/ (WITHIN any number of words that you indicate, such as w/2), /s (in the SAME SENTENCE), and /p (in the SAME PARAGRAPH). Google does offer an analogous, but nearly unknown, proximity connector - AROUND(n).

The Google proximity connector AROUND(n) must be placed in upper case as illustrated in this explanation. By replacing the “n” with a number, you determine how many words you want your keywords to be from each other. For example, when we searched for carole AROUND(2) levitt, we retrieved 281,000 results where carole was within 2 words of levitt. The results consisted of results like this:

• Carole A. Levitt
• Carole Ann Levitt
• Carole Levitt
• Nancy Jo Levitt
• Carol Suzanne Levitt (notice the name carol was retrieved)
• Alain Levitt, Carol Lim
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt inexplicably performing Carole King's classic “You Make ...

To conduct an even more targeted search, try enclosing each of your proximity search terms within their own set of quotation marks. Our search for “carole” AROUND(2) “levitt” retrieved 22,600 results. This search only retrieved results where the exact name carole was separated from exact name levitt (with up to two words in between carole and levitt). It disregarded any documents that included various spellings of carole and levitt while the earlier search, without quotation marks, retrieved results with spelling variations for carole and levitt.

Many researchers searching for documents that include a specified proper name conduct a phrase search. But conducting a proximity search for a proper name, using AROUND(n), is a better search than a phrase search. For example, a phrase search for "carole levitt" retrieved 19,800 result and only retrieved results that referred to Carole Levitt in that exact order and with no intervening words. What is missing from this search are the results that an AROUND(2) proximity search retrieved above, such as: Levitt, Carole; Carole A. Levitt; Carole Ann Levitt; Levitt, Carole A., or Levitt, Carole Ann.

In our live Continuing Legal Education seminars and webinars, we are often asked about conducting a compound proximity search, such as this one where the keyword Cybersleuth is within five words of "Carole Levitt", "Mark Rosch", or "Internet For Lawyers".

Usually, the asker will assumem that the query can be written this way:Cybersleuth AROUND(5) "Carole Levitt" OR "Mark Rosch" OR "Internet For Lawyers".

While a compound proximity search like this is possible, it must be written in Google's search box in this way

Cybersleuth AROUND(5) "Carole Levitt" OR Cybersleuth AROUND(5)"Mark Rosch" OR Cybersleuth AROUND(5)"Internet For Lawyers".

In our live MCLE seminars and webinars, we have long addressed the need for a reliable proximity connector when using free search engines like Google and Yahoo!. Google and Yahoo! use the asterisk (in very different ways) as a NEAR or "within one word" connector (respectively), but seemingly, nothing more precise was available. Web developer Kevin Shay created the more-precise proximity-searching GAPS interface; but it ceased working last year when Google retired the programming tools on which the GAPS site was based.  

According to Dan Russell, Google's Uber Tech Lead for Search Quality and User Happiness, the AROUND feature has been around, "for... oh... the past 5 or 6 years. Turns out that nobody ever bothered to write much about it." Russell took the wraps off the feature in a recent blog post. Perhaps the reason the "nobody ever bothered to write about it" is because there is NO documentation of the AROUND function in Google's "Web Search Help" section. There is a mention of the AROUND proximity search function in the Web Search "Help Forums," but it didn't appear up until January 14, 2011.

The Help Forum response suggests an alternate syntax for the proximity search (carole+2 levitt). Note however, that the syntax mentioned in that "help" response yields very different (and less precise) results than the carole AROUND(2) levitt search syntax.

Kudos to the ABA's Legal Technology Resource Center for bringing this feature to our attention.

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It's fairly well known that Google customizes search results based on the detected location of your device (among numerous other criteria).

For a number of years, Google has given searchers the ability to customize that location by clicking the "Search Tools" tab above the search results list, and then clicking the location displayed on the row of tabs that would subsequently appear.

Now, that location information has been moved from this row of tabs to the bottom of the search results list.

While Google's documentation of the feature indicates that you have two options:

• Use precise location
• Update location

The reality is that only "Use Precise Location" option was available in the seven browser/OS combinations we used to conduct test searches (as shown above). So now, searchers can no longer use a location other than the one where they are located to customize their results. This is yet another step backwards for Google's interface.

The post Google Cripples Another Feature – Location appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

Yahoo has signed an agreement with Google under which, "Google will provide Yahoo with search advertisements ..., web algorithmic search services..., and image search services."

So now, Yahoo will draw some if its web search results, image results, and attendant advertising from Google.

This is nothing new; Yahoo has already been displaying search results provided by Microsoft's Bing since an agreement between those two rivals in 2009. The Yahoo/Microsoft agreement is scheduled to run through 2019. This new Yahoo/Google agreement does not preclude Yahoo from drawing some search results (and advertising) from Microsoft's services.

"Under the Services Agreement, Yahoo has discretion to select which search queries to send to Google and is not obligated to send any minimum number of search queries. The Services Agreement is non-exclusive and expressly permits Yahoo to use any other search advertising services, including its own service, the services of Microsoft Corporation or other third parties."

Details of the Yahoo/Google deal were included in an 8-K filing by Google on October 20. (Public companies are required to file an 8-K with the SEC to reveal information [such as big deals] that would be important for investors to know about.)

According to the the SEC filing, the Yahoo/Google agreement went into effect on October 1, 2015 and is scheduled to run through the end of 2018.

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Recently, Internet For Lawyers principals Carole Levitt and Mark Rosch shared some of their favorite secret Google search tips and ways to access expensive research databases for free with Sam Glover over at the Lawyerist Podcast.

In his introduction to the interview, Glover says:

I’ve written before about the really amazing internet research tips Carole Levitt and Mark Rosch have been teaching to lawyers for years.

If you’re thinking “hey, I know how to use Google so I’m good,” think again. You don’t know anything. You can find out just about anything you might want to find out about a client, opposing party, lawyer, or judge if you know how to look for it.

After you listen to the podcast, you will want to get one of their books. I would start with the Cybersleuth’s Guide to the Internet. And if you ever get a chance to go to one of their seminars (or to book them), do it. You’ll be glad you did.

The interview offers a preview of the types of research methods and resources Levitt and Rosch discuss in their live MCLE seminars and webinars.

Their interview begins at the 5 minute 22 second mark.

The post Internet Ninja Research Tricks | Lawyerist Podcast Interview With Carole Levitt & Mark Rosch appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

Access to the cached versions of pages in Yahoo search results (when available) is now hidden behind a less-than-obvious down-arrow to the right of the results' URL. Hovering over the down-arrow brings up the "Cached" pop-up seen in this illustration. (Note that not all results on your results list will include the down-arrow and therefore do not have a cached version available.)

The cached version is, essentially, a copy of a particular Web page that was captured by the search engine's robot when it last visited that page. The copy is stored on the search engine's own server for future reference/retrieval - even if the content on the original page has been altered, deleted, or otherwise becomes unavailable.

This is actually an emulation of a change that Google made some time ago. In neither case it is NOT a change for the better. Previously, both Yahoo and Google visibly listed the Cached link in the location now occupied by the down-arrow (rather than hiding it behind the down-arrow and adding the additional step of hovering over the down-arrow to display and click the link).

The post Yahoo Adopts Worst of Google’s Interface Changes appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

First, Bing and Yahoo no longer recognize the Boolean connector NOT to exclude terms from a search. To exclude a keyword, multiple keywords, or a phrase, you must type a minus sign immediately to the left of each term you want to exclude. For example, If you wanted to search for results that included President Barack Obama and Iraq but wanted to exclude results that included Angela Merkel, Germany, and Iran, you would enter your search into the Bing (or Yahoo) search box this way:

"Barack Obama" Iraq -"Angela Merkel" -Germany -Iran

Previously, you could use the minus sign in this way or preceed the terms you wanted to exclude with the Boolean connector NOT (in all caps). Bing and Yahoo no longer recognize the NOT Boolean connector.

Second, you can once again exclude results from a particular site (or multiple sites) from your Bing and Yahoo search results. For example, if you wanted to locate Web pages that included information about President Barack Obama and Iraq but did not want to see any results from the Web sites of The Washington Post or Newsweek, you would enter your search into the Bing (or Yahoo) search box this way:

"Barack Obama" Iraq -site:www.washingtonpost.com -site:www.newsweek.com

Owner's of the 13th edition of the new "The Cybersleuth's Guide to the Internet" (IFL Press, 2015) book should update these functions as discussed on pages 52 and 77, respectively. Owners of earlier editions may want to check the index to see where these concepts are discussed.

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Reuters reported that the outages were caused "after Microsoft pushed out a bad code update and then struggled to roll it back."

Engadget reported that: "Because Redmond's roll-back didn't work, it had to turn off groups of linked servers to get back to the point where things were working as they did pre-crash."

Yahoo! was affected because its search has been powered by Microsoft's Bing search engine since 2009, under a 10-year agreement. In a brief written statement, a Microsoft spokesman confirmed the outage, to Reuters but declined to comment on the cause. Yahoo did not immediately respond to reporters' requests for comment.

Other Microsoft cloud services like Outlook.com, Hotmail.com, Live.com, and the Cortana virtual assistant from the company's mobile phones were also affected.

The post Bing Goes Down: Takes Yahoo! With It appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

The death notice was short and to the point. In the post, Rossiter said:

Yahoo was started nearly 20 years ago as a directory of websites that helped users explore the Internet. While we are still committed to connecting users with the information they’re passionate about, our business has evolved and at the end of 2014 (December 31), we will retire the Yahoo Directory. Advertisers will be upgraded to a new service; more details to be communicated directly.

The post Yahoo! Kills Yahoo! | Directory That Launched The Search Engine Set to Disappear at the End of 2014 appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

Previously, we've offered some more detailed tips for creating more effective searches via Twitter.

When you enter a search keyword preceeded by the hash symbol, Bing will suggest hashtags that have been used on the social networking site to categorize posts.

When you begin your search with the @ sign, Bing suggests popular users (mostly celebrities) that match your input.

Not every existing user is included in the suggestion list (even if you type in a complete user handle). however, any valid user name used as a search term will be retrieved in the search results.

The suggestions are presented in a drop-down box that appears beneath the search box - the same way Bing (and Google) already suggest search terms based on other popular searches that match the characters you have typed into the search box.

Based on our test searches, it appears that Bing is simply acting as a front-end to submit searches via the existing Twitter search structure. Searches for hashtags like #ABATECHSHOW yielded the same results whether we ran the search using Bing or Twitter's own search box.

Twitter's own internal search has also long been criticised for it shortcomings targetting older tweets and searching for specific date coverage.

PC World addressed these shortcomings in its coverage:

What's less clear, however, is whether or not users will be able to use Bing to plumb the murky depths of historical tweets. One of the problems with Twitter is that, while it has been easy to discover current tweets and trending topics, it's much more difficult to go back to say, the last World Cup four years ago, and re-discover what fans were talking about. And that apparently won't change.

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