Thursday 26 July 2007

New Westlaw interface

Westlaw has rolled out a new interface for law schools. The general look has been updated - though it's still blue. Aside from that, there were 4 changes that I immediately noticed. First, TWEN has been upgraded from an unassuming tab on the navigation bar to a GIGANTIC YELLOW RECTANGLE in the middle of the page. If you click, you get into TWEN with an updated look; but I noodled around and didn't find any big changes in the basic TWEN format.
Second, the calendar has been moved onto the home page, which is kind of nice. Third, there are "I think I know what I want" search boxes on the home page (called Research Shortcuts) that seem more flexible than the search options on the old home page; you can search for law review articles on a particular topic, for example, right from the home page. Finally, there's a brand new feature: the addition of a "Search the Web" box, called "Westlaw WebPlus (beta): legally focused Web results." I've run a couple of searches but I'm not sure what exactly the search is doing, I assume it's supposed to be like a Google that can home in on legal information. Stay tuned.

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