How does WebPlus work?

We're thrilled to see so many bloggers covering WebPlus in their posts. Many bloggers wonder aloud: what's going on behind the scenes with WebPlus?

In short, we're using intellectual property developed by Thomson (including content, editorial, technology and people assets) to make open Web searching better for our academic and professional customers.

For example, we treat searches and result ranking for the person context differently than we do the legal issue, company or government entity contexts. That's because we know what legal professionals want when they search the web for this type of information. How do we know? Because we're legal professionals too.

I'm sure you'll understand that I can't go into full detail here about our secret sauce, and I certainly understand that information professionals want to know what they're getting so I'll offer this:

WebPlus returns the most relevant 250 results ...

• from a comprehensive Web search powered by our partner Microsoft Live Search


• ranked in an order determined by WebPlus editors and our proprietary ranking algorithm


• which gets better the more legal customers use it

Speaking of getting better, do you have some feedback on how we can make WebPlus more relevant and useful for legal professionals? We'd love to hear it!

What do we mean by BETA?

WebPlus is available in Beta to all Westlaw customers in law schools and in a limited, private beta in the law firm segment.

Why are we in beta? Because we wanted to study early usage to make the broader offering even better for all Westlaw customers.

Are you an attorney or librarian at a law firm and interested in participating in the beta? Please send us your contact information and we'll be in touch as we expand the beta offering later this year.

Welcome to the Westlaw WebPlus Blog

We've created this blog so that we can provide rapid responses to the questions we're hearing, and so we can share product information with you as quickly as possible.

This blog is written by the WebPlus team -- product development, technology and marketing folks who have one mission: create the most legally relevant Web search experience for Westlaw customers.

We want to hear from you --

• how can we make WebPlus better?
• what questions do you have?
• is there a Website with valuable information that you'd like to see higher in your results?
• is there a particular area of law or current events for which you'd like to see deeper coverage?

Post a comment or send feedback -- thank you!