The Long Tail of Legal Information - Legal Reference Service in the Age of the 'Content Farm'

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to alert the legal reference librarian to a new and fundamentally different type of legal information, the "content farm." This article discusses and explains the content farm phenomenon as it affects legal information aimed at the non-expert user. Those who follow trends in information dissemination may recall a recent controversy concerning a change in Google's search algorithm that was created to slow down the proliferation of content farm information. We will review and discuss the assumptions about content farm information that prompted this change; specifically the idea that information generated for content farms is somehow less worthy than other legal information on the web. To do all this we will first attempt to define the term “content farm” - a term that is evolving even as this is written. Then, we will describe how legal information is generated and disseminated via content farms. Next, we will explore why this type of information is different from the usual legal information - good and bad - that is available on the Internet. We will analyze the economic theory upon which that information is being developed: the "long tail theory." We will then show and critique some examples of legal content generated by content farms that are currently available on the web. As part of that discussion we will pose the question of whether Google is right and whether content farm content should be driven from the web. We end with a review of why familiarity with this material is important to reference librarians and why, in the context of a legal reference transaction, content farm material is fundamentally different from other sources of legal information our customers may bring to us.