That's a big contrast with both the competition and much of Thomson Reuters. Earlier this month, CFO Robert Daleo discuss his company's plans, including next year's new Westlaw interface, called Cobalt, and the new Markets platform, currently known as Utah. Utah is aimed more at integrating disparate platforms. Daleo made his comments at UBS Investment Bank's 37th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference held on December 9 in New York City.

Coblalt "will provide a more effective way for customers to do research," said Daleo. He described the approach as Google-like, utilizing filters "upfront to use common [search] terms." He also said the system learns from user searches. If a particular bankruptcy case had not ranked high on searches, but it was being accessed by more and more users, its search ranking would improve.

The description strongly resembles words used by CCH officials to define Wolters Kluwer's new search approach, which has had some first-year difficulties, judging from the speed with which the company introduced a round of fixes in November. But while Mackintosh says no one can rule out the possibility that Cobalt might someday hit the tax and accounting market, Thomson Reuters has no plans to replace the current platform.