Coke v. Pepsi is out.

Windows v. Mac? Nope.

On law school campuses today, there's only one big corporate competition that matters: Westlaw v. Lexis Nexis. The two are the behemoths of the legal research world, offering very, very powerful search tools, armies of research attorneys, and flocks of attractive salespersons.

What's at stake? The surprisingly expensive accounts that attorneys take out to do online legal research. The problem is, the two companies offer an almost identical product. Sure, one is blue and the other is red, but for meat-and-potatoes legal research, I can't distinguish a single meaningful difference.

Where do the law schools fit in? Since most every major firm in the country uses West or Lexis, law students need to learn how to use both of them. So every law school pays for students to be able to use both while they're in school. Furthermore, at least at UNM, the law school seems to prohibit direct competitive marketing to students.

But that doesn't mean they don't have their subtle ways of getting their hooks into you. Both companies want students to become more familiar, and hence more comfortable, with their product. That way, when the students become practicing attorneys, they'll be more likely to use that product. They each buy and stock special printers in the library, so it's free to print cases or articles you pull up with either service. They also offer Reward programs that give students points every time they do research. If you accumulate a lot of points, you can redeem them for free stuff. Thus, the Reward program rewards you for picking one service and sticking with it.

Which one will I choose? It's too early to say. Maybe one of their smaller renegade competitors. I'll post more when I learn more about them.