Yesterday I talked about the new Fastcase app for the iPhone, and I ended by wondering what Westlaw, Lexis and Google might offer in the future. I see that the February edition of the ABA Journal will include a fascinating article about the future of legal research. The article does not explicitly mention the iPhone, but it is still a great sneak peak into the future of legal research technology, some of which I presume will eventually trickle down to the iPhone.
The article talks about how Westlaw is about to make available its new WestlawNext system, which will be a paid upgrade. (The service was officially unveiled yesterday at LegalTech New York.) You can read more about WestlawNext in this preview by Robert Ambrogi and this one by Simon Chester. I also recommend that you check out this page from Westlaw, which contains a nice video overview of WestlawNext. Plus, if you watch the entire video (which is just a few minutes long) West will send you a $5 Starbucks card and enter you for a chance to win a Kindle.
Later this year, Lexis will debut the new version of its system, frequently referred to as New Lexis. Like WestlawNext, the New Lexis will be much more Google-like in its searches. Bloomberg is also testing its own legal research product that will be available later this year. The article also discusses the much cheaper Fastcase system and the free Google Scholar system.
According to the article, Google's Rick Klau indicated that Google has no current plans to do more with Google Scholar than is already available. That was a big surprise to me because with Google's current push into mobile devices (including smart phones that run its own Android operating system), I assumed that a mobile version of Google Scholar was being worked on right now.
I was excited to see the Fastcase iPhone app come out a few days ago, and it looks like this was just the beginning of an exciting year for legal research technology.
