As mentioned in our previous blog(s), Google Scholar continues to update its search and interface. So, here is the latest. Via the official Google Scholar Blog, the two most recent changes include a “more modern look” (as referred to it by Google) and ability to sort by most recent additions.

With respect to the “more modern look,” Google Scholar moved its top of the page tool bar allowing to sort by the type of document (patent, legal document, or article) and date to the left hand side of the screen. Now researchers can filter their results after the search by the type of document and date. Researchers can exclude patents and narrow results down to either legal documents or articles. Filter by date offers the option to see articles since 2012, since 2011, or a custom range dates. The second feature of the “more modern look” is that Google Scholar embedded its advanced search into a drop-down dialog from the universal search box. This feature has streamlined the interface and eliminated extra wordage on the page, but it appears to be hiding now and it is not clear to a new user (or an old one) that there is an option to run an advanced search. Further, this change eliminated the possibility to set the document type filter prior to searching.

The second more recent change to the Google Scholar is the ability to sort results by most recent additions.  This feature not only allows to sort results by date designation of most recent additions, but it also can be a search criteria. The result page presents hits organized by the most recent additions indicating next to each of the results how many hours/days ago was the article added.

Related Blog Posts:

Citations for Legal Opinions by Google Scholar Update
Google Scholar Citations
One Thing that Bothers Me about Google Scholar’s Legal Opinions and Journals
New on LLRX – Google Scholar for Legal Materials
Google Scholar Offers Case Law