Strategic Use of the World Wide Web
By James F. Jarrett

A) How to get started

1) What is the World Wide Web?
Often the above question is asked. Put simply, the World Wide Web is a network of computers (servers) that host Web pages. A Web page, is a document written in a special language (usually HTML) that allows for the searching of text, the inclusion of graphics and sound, and many other information and multimedia features.
2) Is the World Wide Web the same thing as the Internet?
Yes and no. You can think of the Internet as a network of roads. It allows you to go anyplace you want. But for any roadway to be useful, you need to have a destination, a place you are going to with a task you wish to perform.
The World Wide Web NEEDS the Internet to allow it to function, but it is a higher level of abstraction. Think of the Web as stores. You need the roads to get to a store, but it is the store in which you shop or make transactions.
3) What do I need to surf the Web?
Not much. You need a Web access program (called a browser) and an address to start from. It goes (I hope) without saying that you also need access to a computer and the Internet.
4) Okay, what browser should I use?
That simple question will start more arguments than you ever want to contend with. The 5 most commonly used browsers are (these are in no particular order):
Many people will tell you that Netscape is the only browser to use, others will say that Internet Explorer is the best, others like Mosaic. There is no right answer. Asking which is the best browser is much the same as asking what is the best car, or what is the perfect pizza. It is a matter of personal preference, what you want and what you are used to.
Each browser has their own advantages and disadvantages. Typically, you will hear the most about Netscape and Internet Explorer. Both of these offer a wealth of features and customization options. They are both also free, which is not a bad selling point.
5) Where should I start?
Again, there is no right answer. But we will start with Search Engines.

B) Search Engines

1) What is a search engine?
The World Wide Web is unbelievably complex. On any given Web server, there may be many thousands of Web pages ranging in topics from the common (Microsoft's lawsuit of the day) to the obscure (How do I calculate the chord factors for a two frequency regular icosahedron?) (bonus points if you can answer THAT one).
A lot of information is bad enough, but when your addresses look like: http://www.interNetCourt.com/Scripts/transcripts.html (or worse), remembering an address is a nightmare, and finding another address that you never knew.... well it COULD be very complex. Thus the need for a search engine.
A search engine is, simply put, a VERY powerful database. It allows you to enter criteria for the search and will provide you with a list of sites that meet your criteria.
2) Which search engine should I use?
This question will start yet another argument. Again, it is a matter of personal preference and experience. The most commonly used search engines (again in no particular order) are:
Yahoo is TECHNICALLY not a search engine as it only can search itself and not the rest of the Web, but because it is so expansive and constantly being changed and updated, it needs to be listed as a search engine.

For the purposes of this class, I will only discuss one of these in any detail, InfoSeek.

The reason that I recommend InfoSeek to everyone (from beginner to professional)is because it is the simplest to use.

Many of the other searchers require you to learn a complex query language to efficiently search with them. InfoSeek does not. They use something called a natural language processor, meaning you can type your query in plain English.

Which would you rather type to get information on motions filed in the O.J. Simpson case OR the Unabomber case?

(motions && filed && O.J. Simpson) || (motions && filed && Unabomber)

OR

show me motions that were filed in the O.J. Simpson or the Unabomber trial.

Both will work, depending on the search engine, but the second one is easier to read to the uninitiated or the computer phobic.

Now let's do an example. Say we want to search InfoSeek for information on the Ennis Cosby murder trial. First we need to load our browser. I prefer the Netscape browser. As such, it will be the one I talk about the most, but you can use any browser you want.

So after loading Netscape and typing in InfoSeek's address: http://www.infoseek.com we see the screen below:

infoseek.gifInfoseek Main screeninfoseek.gif

Now we enter our search criteria:

ennis cosby murder trial

Please note that this is in lower case. Info-Seek, as well as many other search engines, prefers all data be in lower case. If it is, it does a case insensitive search. This is a more accurate way of assuring that you get the maximum number of hits (positive results). You can capitalize proper names and places if you want, but more often than not it will hinder your search, not help it.

Once we press "seek" (and scroll down some), we get the following screen:

infoseek2.gifInfoseek resultsinfoseek2.gif

InfoSeek sorts the hits in order from it feels is the best hit on down. These are just the first 4 hits out of 6,102,661. Now, how would you like to have to go through them all on your own? Nah, I didn't think so.

Notice that some of the words are in blue and are underlined. These are hyperlinks to the actual pages. You need only click on the underlined text and your browser will automagically take to that page.

Also note that there are a few lines of text from each page IN CONTEXT to let you know if that is really the page you want to see.

Regardless of the search engine you decide to use, there will be times that you just don't hit what you are after. Maybe the engine comes back with a list of hits that are not what you want, or maybe it comes back with no hits at all. Does this mean the information you want is not on the Web? Not likely.

While I am sure there are things you can search for that are not on the Web (I can't think of anything, but I'm sure there must be), a failed search request sometimes means your search was done incorrectly. You may have misspelled an important word, or, if you are using an engine that requires a particular syntax, you may have gotten the syntax wrong. And there is also one other possibility. The engine you are using just doesn't have the information you want in it to give.

By now you should be wondering (a least a little) how the search engines find all this data. Do they just "know" everything on the Web? Not hardly. They have to be told EVERY SITE OUT THERE!!

Who tells them? Well, we do, or more specifically, the person who wrote the website does.

If you are a Web page designer, and you want to increase your traffic, be it because you are selling something, or because you want input on some theories you put on line, or just because you want people to see the really whiz bang job you did designing your page, you need to alert the search engines. Every search engine has a place you can go and fill out a form telling the search engine about your Web page(s) and requesting it to list you. Every so often these requests are processed and the search engine uses an automated program to view your site. It "reads" all the text (text only, it ignores pictures, remember that you, budding Picasso's) and enters all the pertinent data into it's data bases.

Once this is done, you can search their site for things on your Web page and most likely get a hit. There are lots of sites being set up everyday, however, so the average lag time (the time from the moment you submit your site to be listed to the moment you can actually be found on their engine) is about 2-4 weeks.

So what if the person(s) who have a site that contains the information you want did not list it with your favorite search engine? You are now in that less than enviable situation where you have to go to another search engine, one you may not be as familiar with and use it to find what you are after.

OR you can cheat!!

There are several shareware programs on the market that are called "searchbots". A bot is an automated program that will allow you to search ALL of the search engines one after another. All you do is purchase the program (it is usually about $30.00 or less) and install it on your computer. Once that is done, you enter your search into the bot and IT goes to ALL the major browsers and finds what you are after.

The searchbot I most recommend is called WebFerret.

If we give WebFerret the same search as we did before, we get... WebFerret screen shot

As you can see, WebFerret lists all the pages that are available, and what search engine it used to find it. You can double click on the name on the left and your browser will automagically launch and take you straight to that page.

You can download a free 30-day trial copy of WebFerret from Tucows at: http://www.tucows.com

At the end of 30 days you are responsible for deleting the software or sending in the registration fee.

Another very good searchbot is called Jeeves. This one is good because it is both free AND you don't have to install any software. Just go to:
http://www.ask.com

Jeeves will accept queries in "normal English" like InfoSeek does, but it will search several of the major search engines, as well as it's own internal database to give you LOTS of potential hits.

C) Hot sites:

Okay enough about search engines. You now have an idea how to find a place you don't know about, but are there any really hot sites that you should know about without the need for a search engine?

Oh, yes... There are quite a few. I can not begin to list them all, but let's start with the must-haves:

1) TUCOWS (Pronounced 2-cows) stands for The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software. If it has to do with the Internet, and can be downloaded either for free or for a free trial, this is where to get it.

Tucows is Mecca for the cheapskate. All the software there is rated so you can see which ones are the quality programs and which ones are only moderately useful. Better yet, most of the software is either free or inexpensive.

You can download free copies of Netscape, Internet Explorer, and a host of other programs. Tucows is at:

http://www.tucows.com

You may wonder why Tucows it at the top of hot sites when it is not legal or search related. The reason is you will more often than not find, as you use the net more and more, that a particular task you wish to perform you can not perform because you don’t have the correct software.

Having a place that you can get a dependable program quickly to do the job, even if it’s only good for 30 days, may mean the difference in finishing on time, or just plain being finished.

2) Yahoo!! Yahoo is the NUMBER ONE most hit site on the Web. Go there and you will see why. There is all kinds of professional and personal interest information to be found. You can download software, read about a multitude of topics, check stocks. You name it Yahoo has it.

Yahoo is not the best organized site in the world (they are getting much better than they were) so expect to spend a little time finding what you want, but it is time well spent. Their legal and government sections are among their fastest growing.

Yahoo can be reached at:

http://www.yahoo.com

3) The Estrin Organization is a legal temporaries company. While I neither endorse nor disapprove of their company or their services, they do maintain one of the most complete on-line listings of legal related links for the paralegal.

Their link page can be found at:

http://www.estrin.com/links.html

4) Court TV maintains an up-to-date Web site. While they mostly handle high profile cases, they do maintain a fairly extensive on line repository of trial transcripts and legal links. They can be reached at:

http://www.courttv.com

D) Effective/Efficient Browsing Techniques.

Okay, now that the tools for searching are at your disposal and you have some places to start, how can you efficiently find what you are after?

There is no hard and fast rule, but there are a lot of easy to remember rules of thumb that will help you find what you are after. These are in no particular order.

1) Avoid common words in your searches. Words like a, an, the, I, we, he, she, it, etc. are so obscenely common in the English language that they should not be used as keywords in a search if you can help it. Neither should "buzzwords" like net, Web, windows, interface or other words that are going to be very common in a context OTHER than what you are after.

2) Use proper names in LOWER CASE!! If you are looking for information regarding a trial, or a legal firm, or anything that includes a proper name, include the entire proper name in lower case in your search. This will allow the search engines to have a better chance of making a match. A proper name is very specific data and can speed your process up enormously

3) Use your browser's find utility often. When you load a new page that (presumably) has the information you need in it somewhere, you can use the find option of your browser to look for a key word instead of having to read the whole document. Search engines are not perfect, they may send you to a page that at one time DID have the info you need, but has since been changed.

A simple find search can let you quickly realize this and move on to another potential lead.

4) Build a useful list of bookmarks. When you are Web surfing and you find a page of information that you can use, don't let it slip away. Bookmark it. Every Web browser has the capacity to add "bookmarks" of useful pages.

Make a habit of bookmarking every page you go to that is of use to you.

5) Keep your bookmarks from 4 in a reasonable order. Just like all browsers let you make bookmarks, they also let you arrange them in groups so that you can easily find what you want. This can make the difference when you are going back saying "I know I have been to this page before, I just can't remember..."

6) Sign up for mailing lists. There are mailing lists for just about every business, interest group, hobby or vice you can imagine and probably quite a few you can’t.

A mailing list is sort of an e-mail discussion forum that when you (or anyone else on the list) make an observation, comment, or flame, everyone else gets a copy. It is a very good resource for finding out information and opinions in fairly short order. Oft times you can get information through a mailing list that you could not get any other way.

A good site to go to that gives a VERY comprehensive listing of all the mailing lists you can subscribe to is:

http://www.liszt.com

If a mailing list does not exist, call up a bunch of your friends & colleagues and start one. It is not that difficult to do, you can contact your Internet service provider and they can point you in the right direction. (As long as you are not an AOL customer.)

7) Actually READ the few lines of text returned by your search engine. So many people believe that the top three or four returns by their search engine will have what they are after or none of them will. T'aint so... In many cases you may have to scroll down to the 20-30th "hit" before you find what you want. This goes back to the fact that search engines are just tools, they are NOT always right.

8) Take your browsing sessions in short bursts. The human mind is a very easily bored thing. If you have been plugging away looking for something for more than about 10 minutes, you are worthless. Your attention has wandered a bit and you may miss subtle clues that could point you in the right direction.

After every 5-10 minutes of searching, stand up, stretch, make a phone call, just do something else for a little bit. (We are all professionals, so I won't even suggest a game of Solitaire or Minesweeper, That never entered your mind. Right?)

The point is take a short break every little bit. It helps keep your attention from wandering. (This is true for any "intense" or tedious task.)