Rarely would I use a beta site for my Website of the Week. But Rollyo is such a clever idea that I wanted to pass it along. A mini-search engine that you design yourself sounds like fun. Well, OK, maybe it only sounds like techno-geek fun. Basically you can collect up to 25 web addresses into your customized searchroll. Then you, or others, can use that tool to perform searches that look to only those sites. At the Rollyo site, you can see what some people have done as examples of searchrolls. I’m thinking on a small scale here with searchrolls like Jim’s News (my favorite news sites) or Oklahoma Sports or Legal News or maybe Fantasy Football news. Of course, many of you may have already heard of Rollyo in the last few days. Maybe you read Gary Price’s Roll Your own Search Engine With Rollyo (Beta)  or you read Tom Mighell’s or Dennis Kennedy’s blog posts on Rollyo.

Solo and small firm conferences are growing and new ones are appearing all across the country. Last week I received a flyer announcing the inaugural Illinois State Bar Solo and Small Firm Conference. Last week I also was a guest speaker at the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association Solo and Small Firm Conference in Charlottesville. This was their third annual conference and they were warm and friendly hosts. Bruce Dorner, Reid Trautz and I did a day-long technology track on various topics. We had good audiences with lots of good feedback and questions.

I’ve been to solo and small firm conferences in about as many different states as anyone (with a few exceptions.) These gatherings have many similarities and many differences. These variations reflect the various regional needs. Some are one day only. Often they are two or more days in length. Some have few substantive law CLEs. Others have more. All have a significant portion of law practice management and technology programming.

But what these conferences share is extremely important. They always have energy and excitement. There are always groups of lawyers excitedly chatting in the halls. There are always vendors with an opportunity to visit with more lawyers from more different communities than they could in months on the road. There is always a pair of lawyers who haven’t seen each other in a long time catching up. There’s always great CLE programming targeted to the needs of solo and small firm lawyers. There’s usually a lot of loud conversation, along with laughter. There are always lawyers getting questions answered that have puzzled them for a long time.

Many lawyers have used the phrase “revival meeting” to describe their reaction to these solo and small firm conferences. They say they feel like their batteries are recharged by these meetings and they are reminded of why they decided to become a lawyer. Many of these conferences are held at resorts and lawyers frequently bring their families along for the event. I’ve imagined there have been some pretty interesting conversations as the lawyers’ spouses and children make acquaintance and compare notes.

If your state hasn’t jumped on this bandwagon yet and you have an interest in this type of gathering, contact your state or local bar and offer to help. These programs cannot be put together by staff alone. We need volunteer lawyers and bar officers committed to the project. But as the small firm lawyers in many states can attest, you will be pleased if you bring this high-impact type of event to your neighborhood.

Surely all of the readers of this blog have visited C|Net.com. But just in case some of you have forgotten about it, here’s a reminder. C|Net has many great reviews on high tech products like computers, cameras, mobile phones, camcorders, MP3 players and PDAs. I’d never make a major electronics purchase without first looking for reviews on C|Net. There are many more interesting features as well. Of course, C|Net does have a dark side. The innocent lawyer looking for reviews on top PDAs or inexpensive 17 inch LCD monitors may stumble across some hot home electronic products profiled that the lawyer cannot live without, like a top-rated A/V receiver. I’ve visited this site a lot this past week, researching an article. So C|Net.com is my Website of the Week.

"A Desktop Search Primer" was the title of my Oklahoma Bar Journal story this month. I generally outlined what desktop search is and noted several of the leading products. An important point was that you should make sure the product indexes the files you need to search. For example, some products do not index WordPerfect files. Google is so pervasive that many plug-ins have been developed by third parties to enhance its capabilities, including Larry’s WordPerfect Indexer for Google. Go check out the Google plug-ins page. While Google disclaims responsibility for these third party plug-ins, I have the feeling they would remove those where they had received many trouble reports. Tweak GDS, Google Desktop Extreme and gdTunes all look interesting. But, I’m not using Google Desktop Search for now. At this point I prefer the non-browser-dependent alternatives, not affiliated with the mega portals.

Killer Desktop Search for Free by John Tredennick is in this month’s Law Practice Today. Now I did find some humor here. I’ve had the pleasure of being entertained in John and Page’s beautiful home, although I didn’t make it over to tour the stables. John writes that he knew of X-1 Desktop Search being available for $75 but "never could bring myself to buy it. Instead, I remained in desktop search hell." I’m sure I wasn’t the only one reading that who thought that John could have afforded it. Now John has settled on Microsoft Desktop Search as his favorite choice at his favorite price – Free.

Tom Mighell prefers Copernic Desktop Search as his tool of choice. If I hadn’t already started with X-1, I would probably using that one as it is free and works with Internet Explorer or FireFox. That’s my concern about the Microsoft product. I don’t particularly want a product tied to IE when so many people are switching over to Firefox as their browser of choice.

If you read these posts because you value my opinions, then let me give you a strong opinion now. It is time for you to install one of these products now! This week. You save too much time with these products on a regular basis not to have them. Don’t let the fact that there are a number of good choices stall you for fear of not getting the very best one. They are slightly different, but they are all better than what comes standard with Windows. Read all the linked articles here for all the information you need. Then download and try one.

Let me give you one more example. Three of us were on a conference call the other day and we needed to call a third party. None of us had her in our Contacts. Before anyone could act, I opened X-1 and typed her first name, Dee, into e-mail search. I looked at the saved e-mails from her and opened one that didn’t have RE: or FWD: in the subject line. Her phone number was in the signature block. This took three or four seconds. Of course, then I used Anagram to save all of her information into my Contacts in another three or four seconds, but that’s another story.

The September issue of Law Practice Today has hit the Web.

The September issue of Law Practice, the magazine, is also online. (For those who read this months from now, both links go to the current issue.)

It’s really sort of amazing that the ABA Law Practice Management Section gives away so much content to non-members online. If you are an ABA member, you should join the section just as a thank you gesture. Plus you will receive even more benefits.

LPT features this month include a feature by Susan Raridon Lambreth on avoiding the pitfalls of implementing practice management software and an article by Tom Mighell and Dennis Kennedy on Instant Messaging resources. There are more links to useful information on this topic than you might suspect. Don’t skip this because you’ve never used IMs, especially if you have management responsibilities in your firm. Some of your employees are, no doubt, using IMs at work. While I would hate to see you ban any technology, including IMs, a cautionary memo might be in order about the fact that IMs can sometimes be accessed later, just like deleted e-mails. I don’t think most IM users understand this.

Law Practice Magazine has many great features as well, including one by Merrilyn Astin Tarlton on 21 Ways Lawyers Can Give Back- Every Day. (Note: this link will die when the magazine is archived and made available to section members only.)

The ABA today has issued a press release about its 2004-2005 Legal Technology Survey.  I’m quite interested in the lawyer’s use of technology. However, this press release leaves something to be desired. (I’ll direct you to the good stuff.) Their headline from the survey is that 19% of responding lawyers have used a wireless Internet connection. (Yawn.) I found much more interesting that firewall software has risen to 66% from 43% in 2004. Eighty-eight percent have home Internet access or other access away from the office, but sadly 24 percent are still dial-up users. They must not have any children at home.

Here’s the direct link to the information about the survey, which the press release omits. It also omits the information on how to obtain it. The entire survey bound in five volumes costs $2250 ($2000 for ABA members.) But you can download the Executive Summary in PDF for only $150 non-ABA, $100 ABA members, which is all you likely have time to read anyway. A bonus for ABA members is the ability to download the "trends" sections from each of the five volumes in PDF at no cost. I looked at a couple of these. They were each 12 pages with about half being information about the survey methodology and half being some pretty interesting material. If you are an ABA member you should at least take a look at the free material.

Several days ago, I did a post here on Blog Search Tools. Now we have a new powerhouse in this area with the entry of Google’s Blog Search (in beta.) Many of us have been anticipating this from Google for some time. You will not be surprised to hear that it seems to work well and quickly. While some of the more specialized tools I noted previously have unique features and will be useful, my prediction is that that this will become the blog search engine of choice for most. Check out the Advanced Search features so you will know what is there.

Suzanne Rose of Tennessee (and Suzanne Rose Consulting) started her blog recently, but swore me to silence for a while. Time’s up, Suzanne.

Risky Biz dervives its name from the idea that running a law firm can be risky. It is certainly true that law firms have risks, including the basic business risks of profitability and viability and some of the unique law firm risks of ethics violations or legal malpractice. Suzanne says, "I see a need for a change in thinking about how to build and maintain a successful, effective, viable law practice – whether it be a solo practitioner or a mega-firm. I have been a small voice for the "practicing law is a business" philosophy. I am now wondering if lawyers and legal consultants have taken that too much to heart and find that the sensitive balance between law as an ‘art form’ and as a business has tipped too far to the business side, leaving in its wake unhappy lawyers, fragile law firms and dis-satisfied clients."

Suzanne is the former practice management advisor for the Tennessee Bar. Read her recent posts on what clients not to take and then add Risky Biz to your RSS Newsfeeds. I did.