TechnoLawyer: Technology Industry/Legal Profession

Lots of people claim that they can help your site achieve a high rank in Google. The search engine optimization (SEO) industry has grown rapidly over the years. However, because SEO requires knowledge more than any particular skill (unlike, say graphic design), you could do it yourself if you have the time and inclination (as we have done at TechnoLawyer).

To get started, go to the source. Read Google's article entitled Webmaster Guidelines.

Then, subscribe to the High Rankings newsletter.

Finally, consider adding a blog to your site (at your domain name). A blog is the cheapest available content management system, which will enable you to add content without programming. Blogs have a reputation as highly-personal soapboxes. But group blogs that cover news and information can perform just as well in Google. This type of blog would replace the pages on your traditional site for articles and firm news. Actually, you could keep those pages as well and have them dynamically update as you add material to your blog.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Coming August 25, 2006 to Fat Friday: Kurt Schoettler, a technology trainer, adds his two cents to the software training debate, Jerry Sullenberger discusses the risks of solely relying on RAID technology as a backup solution, and Robert Browning explains how his unique eyesight works with multiple monitors. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming August 14, 2006 to IP Memes:  Steve, Doug, and Matt cover the following memes: the missing link in India's modernized patent system, a Swedish group out to abolish patents, and a review of the USPTO's online makeover.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Mondays, IP Memes is a biweekly newsletter that explores emerging technology-related intellectual property issues — or "memes" as we call them. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

On February 11, 2002 in this newsletter, I wrote: "Despite the years of competition, the case management market still has many players. But last year, West Group acquired ProLaw and Lexis-Nexis allied itself with Time Matters. Will further consolidation occur? Will we ever see a roll-up or merger involving a case management solution and an accounting or time-billing solution?"

Since then, LexisNexis has acquired Time Matters and PCLaw, and more recently CaseSoft and Dataflight. Thomson-West, Wolters Kluwer, and other companies have also made strategic acquisitions.

What does it all mean? Veteran technology reporter John K. Waters attempts to answer this question in his Law.com article, LexisNexis Mergers: Toward a Microsoftesque Monoculture?

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Coming July 31, 2006 to IP Memes: Steve, Doug, and Matt cover the following memes: the controversy over patenting tax advice, overseas trademark-squatting, the use of Wikipedia by the USPTO, and YouTube's copyright troubles.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Mondays, IP Memes is a biweekly newsletter that explores emerging technology-related intellectual property issues — or "memes" as we call them. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Thanks to you, TechnoLawyer was among the first publishers to identify Dell's customer service problems, which have contributed to the company's woes. Dell has even launched a blog to address concerns and keep customers apprised of its restructuring efforts.

But Dell has another problem. For consumers and small businesses, computers are once again being perceived as cool — a word few people would use to describe Dell's product line. By contrast, Apple and HP have unveiled stylish computers this year with slick TV ads to match. HP even lets you create your own version of its ads. Dell recently acquired Alienware, but those high-end machines have a limited audience.

If Dell shores up service and remains competitive on price, will that be enough? Or must it also start designing PCs with sex appeal across its entire product line?

Update: It looks my crystal ball was crystal clear for a change. On July 27, 2006, BusinessWeek published an article entitled Microsoft, Design Guru about how a group within Microsoft is trying to persuade PC manufacturers to build sleeker, sexier PCs.

From the article: "The Windows Vista Industrial Design Toolkit, hand-delivered to about 70 designers, contains everything a PC maker needs — color palette, suggested materials, even graphics for icons and power buttons — to create computers, laptops, and peripherals that hew to Vista's look. A separate booklet exhorts hardware makers to eschew drab, utilitarian boxes. Microsoft is providing the toolkit for free and vows not to strong-arm any company into incorporating the concepts."

About TechnoEditorials

A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Earlier this year I proclaimed 2006 the year of mobile video. Well, uhm, I think was off by about five years. Maybe ten. Instead, I should have proclaimed it the year of YouTube, the site that finally delivered on the promise of online video — for both filmmakers and their audience. One aspect of my prediction has come to pass, however — lawyers using online video as a marketing tool. For example, Allison Margolin, a criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles, created a 3:35 minute film about her work and uploaded it to YouTube. So far it has garnered 1,751 views.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Coming July 17, 2006 to IP Memes: Steve, Doug, and Matt cover the following memes: a trademark added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the IP case that persuaded archrivals Coke and Pepsi to join forces, a looming patent battle in the social networking Web site world, and the real-life trademark drama of reality show SuperProducer Mark Burnett.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Mondays, IP Memes is a biweekly newsletter that explores emerging technology-related intellectual property issues — or "memes" as we call them. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming July 14, 2006 to Fat Friday: Danny Wash reviews Info Select for case management, Martin Dean shares his list of grievances with a recent TechnoFeature article about law firm technology outsourcing, and Brian Garves reviews his experience ordering books from Thomson West. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Longtime TechnoLawyer members know that I care as deeply about the design of technology as I do about its function. So does New York Times columnist David Pogue. Take a look at his often hilarious 15 minute video presentation from this year's TED conference. As a bonus, in addition to streaming the video, you can also download the audio or video for your iPod — definitely a keeper. Take a look.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.