Keep Track of Your Browsing History With Lexbox
Lexbox is a supplementary tool on CanLII that can help you keep track of your legal research online by allowing you to view your browsing history, save cases, create and organize folders, and set up alerts. It is free to use the base version and signing up requires only your name, email, and a password. There is also a professional version (Premium) you can choose to subscribe to — you can click here to learn more about what’s in the two plans.
To make sure Lexbox keeps track of your search history, remember to log in to your Lexbox account whenever you are browsing CanLII. You can do this by making a search on CanLII and clicking the ‘Browse Lexbox’ drop-down menu which appears on every search page and case page. The menu contains a link that will take you to a separate login screen.
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After entering your credentials, you will be automatically redirected back to the page you were visiting on CanLII. Note that the ‘Browse Lexbox’ drop down menu now has a link labelled ‘Recent history’, along with a list of the saved documents, folders, and searches in your Lexbox account.
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When you click on “Recent history” you can review your search history within time periods when you were last active. For a more in-depth look at your search history, you can click on “View my whole history”. This will take you to your Lexbox account where you can view a list of your recent search results back to 30 days. The gavel icon indicates a case you recently visited, your past search queries are indicated by the magnifying glass icon, and a book indicates a piece of legislation. Clicking on one of these links will reload your search query. The links are organized chronologically and divided up into sections based on the browsing session you viewed them in.
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You can delete all the items recorded in your browsing history, all the items viewed in a single browsing session, or individual items at any time.
If you wish to disable Lexbox’s automatic tracking feature, you can visit your account administration profile and de-select “Record my history on supported websites” under the Preferences heading.
Good luck and happy searching!
[This tip first appeared on the CanLII blog and is also available in French]
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