Stories in the press, whether online, or via any other influential media, can definitely influence the results of cases. Search is becoming more and more important to attorneys trying to understand the impact of news on cases.

"Ego searches" is the common term for searches in Google and other search engines for the names of parties concerned. As always, information is time critical and news items about individuals involved in cases can change both the perception and the impact of statements and evidence put before the court.

The feed below shows links to news sources often referenced by legal professionals, as well as other useful links to time sensitive information sources.

Ego Searches & RSS

Ego searches are free and simple searches designed
to monitor blogs and news portals for mentions of
your company, product, competitors or other specific
keywords. Conducting ego searches not only allows
you to stay informed, but also allows you to maintain
a strategic advantage over competing companies.
A number of new Internet services are freely available
that make these 'ego searches' painless and easy.

Dynamically created keyword based RSS feeds, update
in your RSS reader or news aggregators, each time
new information containing the keyword appears in
the searched resources. The dynamic feeds match
requests against new information, as it comes online
in real time. The following free services allow
for RSS feed ego searches.

Google News - Simply conduct a keyword search
of Google News and then click the text that says
"RSS" then save the url of the RSS feed
into your news reader. Every time a new article
with that keyword appears in Google News the feed
in your RSS reader will automatically update.

http://news.google.com/news

BlogPulse - Find out what is being said about
your products, company or your industry in the blogosphere.
Conduct a keyword or url search on BlogPulse. Click
the orange RSS icon above the search results and
save the feed in your reader. Each time the keyword
appears in a blog indexed by BlogPulse you will
receive a new item in your feed reader. Another
feature of BlogPulse is it will graph the keyword
occurrences, providing a picture representation
so that trends can be easily visualized. Hovering
over the lines of the graph will provide details
of actual blog mentions.

http://www.blogpulse.com

PubSub - Search on a keyword, then save and
add the feed to your RSS reader using the icons
provided. Optionally with PubSub you can direct
your search to only alert you of posts in specific
areas of interest including Press Releases, SEC/EDGAR
Filings, Newsgroup Posts, or Weblog Entries

http://www.pubsub.com

Technorati - Create watch lists, by entering
the search term add item to the watch list and then
scroll to the bottom click the blue RSS icon to
obtain the url of the RSS feed that can be added
to your reader. Technorati is a real-time search
engine that keeps track of what is going on in the
blogosphere. In order to setup a watchlist you will
have to create a Technorati account.

http://www.technorati.com

Ice Rocket - Simply search Ice Rocket
then click the RSS 2.0 button to obtain the url
of the RSS feed that contains your search term.
Add the url to your RSS reader or newsaggregator.

http://www.icerocket.com/

Find Articles - Traditional media channels can
even be monitored using RSS. FindArticles routinely
scans magazines and publications for keyword mentions.
Conduct a search then click "RSS Alert"
to obtain the url to the RSS feed. Add the feed
to your reader to receive instant notification of
new articles.

http://www.findarticles.com/

NewsTrove - NewsTrove indexes millions of news
articles from a myriad of sources. Build an RSS
feed on any topic imaginable. Enter your search
words in the search box. Click 'Search' click the
orange XML icon on the right side of the search
results page and save the feed to your news reader.

http://www.newstrove.com

BlogDigger - BlogDigger monitors the blogosphere
and generally what is said daily in the blogs. Conduct
a search on Blogdigger and click the orange XML
icon to retrieve the url of the search feed. The
feed should then be added to your RSS reader.

http://www.blogdigger.com/

DayPop - Conduct a search and click the icon
on the right that says XML, save the feed to your
RSS aggregator. Only the most recent search results
will appear.

http://www.daypop.com

Yahoo News - Conduct a search then click
"view as RSS" in the right column save
the feed in your aggregator. The feed will check
Yahoo news for mentions.

http://news.yahoo.com/

Overall, ego searches are an excellent way to
stay informed and maintain a strategic advantage
over competitors. Knowing exactly what your online
competitors are doing provides a competitive edge
that can be used to your advantage. Keyword RSS
feeds can be used to monitor key phrases for trademark
abuses or monitoring the effectiveness of a specific
press promotion.

Although they sound daunting ego searches are simply
good business sense.

About the Author:

Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll
http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds
and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing
for FeedForDev http://www.feedfordev.com
an RSS component for developers.

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