Law.com today launched a new search tool that allows more focused searching of legal sites than would a general search site such as Google, with the goal of delivering more relevant results. Called Law.com Quest, it provides the option of searching only the Law.com network of sites or a broader collection of legal Web sites and legal blogs.

A nice feature is the ability to filter search results by date ranges or by the content source or type. For example, if you search within the Law.com network, you can then filter results to show only those from the National Law Journal or The American Lawyer, or you can choose to see only results that come from court decisions or blogs. If you use the broader “legal Web” search, you can filter results by selected courts and regions.

The Law.com search option draws results from Law.com sites and ALM publications. The broader search includes legal sites and blogs selected by Law.com staff. An FAQ invites users to suggest sites they would like to see included.

Access to some items listed in search results is limited to the publication’s subscribers. For these, the results page includes a “subscription required” notice.

My somewhat brief testing today reveals this to be a more powerful and more user-friendly search tool than was previously available on Law.com. The addition of the broader legal Web search is a nice touch. One drawback of this broader search is that, because you don’t know which sites and blogs it indexes, you are left uncertain of how to interpret search results. But that is a small negative in an overall significant enhancement to the Law.com site.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.