Legal Research

Google Search Results Experiment

By Simon Fodden

Back when it was sunny and warm, I posted about Google Labs’ experiment with displaying search results along a timeline. Now that experiment has moved one step further into the mainstream. A week or so ago Google announced that it was making three new search views available, still on an experimental basis, but now letting you join the trial (and presumably requiring you to have a Google account that you’re logged into).

If you opt to join the “alternate views for search results” experiment from the sign-up page your Google searches will thereafter display three new buttons at the top of the results page:

• list view (the usual list of results),
• info view (which lets you focus the context material accompanying your search terms on dates, measurements, locations or images, each with its own ability to further refine the search),
• timeline view (which displays the results along a timeline),
  and
• map view (which calls up Google Maps and places “pins” beside search results that will take you to a point on a map).

You can, of course, leave the experiment by going back to the sign-up page and clicking the relevant “leave” button.

I haven’t played around with this yet, but there ought to be a way to make some of these options useful in the legal context. Any suggestions?

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on February 06, 2008 (boomark / email).