Ever thought “Google is great, but why can’t I search my computer the same way?” Well now you can do just that. The new Google Desktop Search launched in beta 14 October. It seamlessly blends into Google itself. Download the tool and you’ll see a new Desktop search button on the Google home page. Google will then index documents on your computer while it is idle. Selecting the Desktop button for a search brings back hits – almost instantly – from your own computer. Google Desktop Search indexes the full text of emails in Outlook or Outlook Express, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, AOL Instant Messenger chats, cahed IE web pages, any HTML file saved to your computer and plain text files. Wow!
You are currently browsing the yearly archive for 2004.
In the Autumn of 1994 Jeffrey Green Russell was the first UK solicitors practice to establish its own website. Thus began the UK legal web. By early 1995 it comprised a handful of intrepid law firms and barristers, the Law Schools at Bristol and Strathclyde and infolaw and Delia Venables – the first portal sites. Significant other early adopters were the International Centre for Commercial Law (Legalease), the Society for Computers and Law, Cloudnine Technology (Charles Christian) and the Law Society. In 1996 HMSO started publishing Acts on the web; by June 1996 most of the leading law publishers had a web presence; Parliament went online and the House of Lords began publishing its judgments; and in June 1997 the LCD started posting significant judgments. The rest is history.
To view early versions of these and any other sites, try the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
The new Sentencing Guidelines site contains information about the Sentencing Guidelines Council and the Sentencing Advisory Panel and includes the Council’s first draft guidelines covering Seriousness & New Sentences and Reductions in Sentence for a Guilty Plea. These guidelines are designed to assist criminal courts in developing a common approach to sentencing of offenders. They provide a bridge between Government policy and the decision in individual cases.
Europa has launched a new portal providing detailed practical information on rights and opportunities in the EU and its internal market and advice on how to exercise these rights in practice. Sections include:
- General EU-wide guides. Giving a general overview of EU-wide rights and opportunities and of how to make effective use of them.
- Factsheets. More than 80 individual factsheets giving detailed practical information about exercising rights both at EU level and in a specific EU country.
- Useful addresses. Relevant postal addresses, telephone numbers, websites and email addresses.
The Scottish Parliament launched its new improved website on 6 September prior to the opening of the new Parliament buildings. Amongst the new features are:
- MSP biographical pages which include individual interviews with Members filmed in the new building during the summer.
- A dedicated page for each committee with up-to-date information on consultations and links to related papers and reports.
- An interactive educational section which includes resources, games and quizzes catering for children and young people from preschool to secondary school age.
- An online update service which sends subscribers information about the latest parliamentary events.
Also launched at the same time is the Parliament’s new webcasting site Holyrood.tv which takes over from the popular scottishparliamentlive.com and will have live coverage of proceedings in the Main Chamber and all six committee rooms as well as an archive of business from the previous two weeks.
The 1997 case of McDonalds v Steel & Morris was notable in a number of respects. It provided intriguing reading in the silly season, ran for 314 days and produced a judgment of several hundred pages. It was also one of the first cases to be reported by the Court Service on the web (in summary).
Steel and Morris, who conducted their own defence, were ordered to pay £40,000 over a leaflet McDonalds said was damaging. But the case was also a public relations disaster for McDonalds as the judge also ruled that the leaflet had correctly accused the corporation of paying low wages, being responsible for cruelty to some of the animals used in its products and exploiting children in advertising campaigns.
The pair, represented this time, have now taken the government to the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that English law, in denying legal aid in libel cases, produced a stark inequality between ordinary individuals and a massive corporation and clearly did not meet the requirements of the Human Rights convention which guarantees the right to a fair trial and the right to freedom of expression. Judgment is expected at the end of 2004.
Every now and then I come across a site whose appeal is immediate and its utility obvious. Homeless Pages is one such. It is a library of over 1,400 information resources about homelessness and related issues, with information about reports, books, directories, leaflets, training courses, legislation, computer software and websites, as well as full details of the organisations that provide this information. The design is fresh and clean and the navigation simple. The library can be browsed by subject, keyword, organisation or type of resource, or searched. Above all, the site is highly focussed. A must for practitioners involved in housing and welfare.
TOGETHER is a government campaign across England and Wales that takes a stand against anti-social behaviour and puts the needs of the local community first. The site offers news and resources for the homeless and for practitioners – police officers, housing officers, wardens, community workers, court staff and environmental health officers.
The CLSA has revamped its website with an attractive design and a number of new features. Public access areas include News, a Links page and, of course, a Find a Solicitor facility. Features available to members include eAlerts, Member News, Committee Reports and Consultation Papers.
Internet service providers (ISPs) have declared war on e-commerce web sites run by spammers in a new ‘get tough’ policy on spam. Shutting down these web sites is intended to remove the financial incentive to send spam. The decision to extend the battle against spam onto web sites was taken by ISPs belonging to the London Internet Exchange (LINX), which handles more than 90 per cent of the UK’s Internet traffic. This initiative tackles spammers who host their e-commerce web sites with a reputable ISP while sending spam from another network. ISPs’ anti-spam policies will now also target web site owners even when the site owner uses a third party to send the spam itself.
LINX codes of Best Current Practice (BCP) lead ISPs’ development of acceptable use terms of service, the contract between an ISP and it customer.
