Earlier this week I retweeted a blog post on Internet for Lawyers detailing a change to Google Scholar and how it affects case law searching. I’ve had a chance to look at the change some more and had a few thoughts. I’m not as critical of the change as Internet for Lawyers. I don’t like the fact that you can’t limit your search by specific jurisdiction or court before you search like you could with the old advanced search. It would be nice to at least have the option of pre-search filters, but it seems that post-search filters is the wave of the future.
Although, I must say that while I miss being able to use pre-search filters, I never liked how the old advanced search feature was laid out with the jurisdiction and court options all the way at the bottom. It always seemed a bit cumbersome. Maybe that’s one reason I do like having the filters clearly available on the left-hand side of the screen after you run a search. I think it will make post-search filtering easier.
I do wish that when you click the “Select Courts” button that the selections were cleared. It’s unlikely you’re going to “Select Courts” and then only deselect a handful. Most users will have to “clear selection” every time, so why not default it that way.
If you like the old advanced search, make sure to check out the Internet for Lawyers post to find how to get back, at least until it’s permanently dead.