Last May, we reported on the French government’s complaints about privacy issues with Google’s StreetView system. Apparently, they weren’t the only ones concerned. Google has now removed a grand total of 51 specific locations from their Google Maps Street View. Many of the deleted images are considered to be of a “sensitive nature,” such as research labs and nuclear reactors. Non-military sites being blocked or blurred include the Playland Amusement Park in Rye, New York, the homes of Vice President Dick Cheney and actor William Hurt… and the entire continent of Europe. Google has yet to comment publicly on this matter.

Bookmarks. RSS feeds. Downloaded files. General social media. Despite what you be thinking right now, throwing everything onto the digital equivalent of your bedroom floor is not being organized. Don’t worry, because Secondbrain is here to help. Secondbrain is like a giant file cabinet, keeping all of your links and files safe and accessible in one central location. It also makes it easy to share your private collection of web bits with the world. After a few minutes, you’ll see what how great true online organization is. It’s better than the bedroom floor approach.

One of the harder things to do in life is deal with a cat. One second, it’s rubbing up against you affectionately. The next, it’s taking its claws for a spin on your new sofa. In many ways, writing HTML and CSS code is the same exact thing. To calm the raging feline that lives within your web server, we here at the Free Line suggest trying HTML Playground. HTML Playground allows you to see the changes you make to your code in real time, allowing you to view and anticipate any problems as they occur. If something doesn’t quite work, just undo it. No harm done. While it’s not necessarily suited for everyday use, HTML Playground is perfect as the “catnip” needed to keep your site in line.

Sometimes, all it takes is one picture to turn your website from beautiful to an eyesore. Site colors that clash with the colors of a picture can not only ruin your site’s ascetics, it could scare potential clients away. One way to prevent this from happening is by using a “color match” service like the Color Palette Generator. The Generator analyzes your picture files, and offers up a few appropriate colors that will match nicely. Simple and easy to use, the Color Palette Generator is one way to make sure that the your site is not an eyesore.

In the world of digital photography, keeping everything deep and meaningful isn’t always appropriate. There are moments where you just need to lighten up and explore your inner “Andy Warhol.” Cameroid takes webcam-based digital pictures and turns them into an over-the-top experience heavy on visual delight, but light on thinking. All of the classic filters and options are present, from pop art to the head of Frankenstein. While it won’t guarantee you your “fifteen minutes,” the free Cameroid service does provide some mindless fun. And sometimes, a little mindless fun is exactly what the doctor ordered.

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Just when we think we know all the answers concerning Internet marketing, Google changes the questions. Internet marketing expert and StomperNet faculty member Ed Dale is reporting that Google has altered the way that the AdWords Keyword Tool reports keyword search volume. Each report now accurately states how many times keywords or strings of keywords were searched, all using real numbers. Thanks to the new update, the end user will be able to know whether or not a keyword or a string of keywords are worth pursuing. We are currently testing the system for accuracy ourselves. We will keep you posted on the results.

For those of you who still want a bit more out of your data than what Google is giving, we suggest giving Woopra a try. From all reports, the featuring list on thing is nothing short of “massive.” According to developer iFusion Labs, Woopra is designed to do everything a developer would want, from tracking hits to sending real time notifications. Although still in beta, Woopra already has those “in the know” talking. Woopra, like most of tools featured on the Free Line, is completely free.

With the popularity of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, the term “social media marketer” has become the Internet’s new buzzword. But as those of us in the business know, a real social media marketer is more than just a person with a smattering of SEO knowledge and a passion for friend’s lists. On Techipedia, journalist Tamar Wienberg talks about what it takes to be the very best with the people who know it best: actual social media marketers. “A social media marketer’s job never ends,” says media strategist Reem Abeidoh. “They usually work 70 hour weeks and need to be extremely flexible. There are days when marketers may have to serve as internal evangelist by introducing key stakeholders to social media. There are other times when marketers may have to launch a multi-platform outreach campaign. It just depends on the needs of the client.”

The practice of using social networks as a business tool are not limited to the “social media” kingpins mentioned above. Lawyers are now using Twitter as a way to find prospective clients. The key, according to Law Firm Web Strategy blogger Steve Matthews, is to remember that Twitter is based upon “pure, personal reactions.” By staying personal, the marketer or lawyer will have an easier time “exposing one’s practice and expertise online.” Great words to live by, no matter if your product is legal services or or web developing.

As many of you already know, hosting and maintaining a blog can increase visibility of your website. Hosting several blogs on varied, yet still relevant topics could be huge for your business, but could also cause massive headaches for either you or your IT team. Our solution is simple: WordPress MultiUser, or “MU” for short. WordPress MU makes it easy for users to host, track, and update several different blogs hosted on the same website. It also makes it a breeze to start new blogs when needed. So start blogging. The world is waiting to hear what you have to say.

The way that advertising appears on social networks is about to change… if Google has anything to say about it, that is. The current reigning “king of all that is searchable” is trying to patent a new algorithm they call “FriendRank.” FriendRank is similar to its older brother, PageRank, only it uses social networking and friends lists to create popularity data. The idea is to find the most influential friend in a group of friends on a social network, and then display ads on their profile. The end result? Targeted advertising for less dollars and a possibly a few new friends to boot. Not a bad deal at all.

In other Google news, it looks like the US Justice Department is investigating the advertising deal between Yahoo and Google. There are worries that it could be breaking antitrust laws, and that the two together would create a monopoly of Internet based advertising. They are requesting documentation not only from the two web giants, but also from all web advertising companies. Google’s general council Keith Walker still considers the deal to be “pro-competitive.” We will keep you abreast of this developing situation.

In other legal news, a judge has officially ordered YouTube owner Google to give all of its user information to Viacom. Viacom is aiming to prove that illegal, pirated videos are more popular online than the “traditional” videos made by users. A victory would be huge for Viacom, as it would leave Google open to a contributory infringement charge. Although Google has since complied with the ruling, the company has yet to comment publicly on the matter.

While the big brass at Google might be staying silent, those actively working on the search engine are letting their voices be heard. A Google search of the term “Viacom” has two news articles concerning the ruling ranking above the media giant’s corporate website, both with a distinct “anti-Viacom” slant. The article from CNET labels Viacom as “corporate bullies,” while the eCanadaNow piece quietly bemoans the breach of privacy. Both the articles and the search results prove that the pen - and, in this case, the search engine - is mightier than the legal summons. We’re now saying that Google skews the search results for their own political ends, but it sure is a big coincidence. Don’t you think?

Ever wish you that you could smash ten pages of Amazon.com customer reviews into ten lines? You can now, thanks to Pluribo. This handy little Firefox extension strolls through a product, checks out the reviews, and converts them into a compact, easy to read summary. Pluribo is a great way to get the gist of what everyone is saying without actually sifting through those tedious reviews yourself. Oh… and it’s completely free. Can’t beat that.

We’ve talked about Blender before. For those new to the Free Line, Blender is a free, open-source 3D graphics tool comparable to expensive programs such as 3DS Max and LightWave 3D. The Blender Institute, the group behind the feature-length film “Big Bucks Bunny,” is currently hard at work on their first video game. Tentatively titled “Apricot,” the game centers around a chipmunk looking for his nuts. The game, which is still in early stages of development, currently has no release date.

广告在社交网络中的投放的形式可能要改变了……如果Google想要插一手的话。·这个搜索一切可搜索之王正打算提交一项新的算法专利叫做FriendRank。FriendRank和它的兄弟PageRank差不多，而它是通过收集社交网络的朋友列表来确定受欢迎度。这个想法是去寻找那些在一个社交圈里最有影响的人，并在他们的页面中显示广告。结果呢？定位更准花钱更少并发现其更多的朋友。非常有趣的想法。

另一条Google新闻，看起来美国司法部正在调查雅虎和Google之间的广告交易。·有人担心这将会触及反垄断法，因为他们两家联合起来可能造成网络广告的垄断·。司法部调查的范围不仅限于谷歌和雅虎，也涉及其它所有的网络广告公司。Google的法律顾问Keith Walker依然认为这项交易是合法的。我们会持续关注下去的。

接下来，美国法院已经判定YouTube的主人Google需要把其所有的用户信息都提供给Viacom。·Viacom试图以此来证明YouTube存在不合法内容，因为大量侵权的内容已经超过了用户制作的视频。这对Viacom来说意味深远，另外Google也将可能面临协助侵权的罚款。尽管Google目前为止还没有提出异议，但是也没有对媒体做任何评论。

有没有办法可以把亚马逊上的整整10页的用户评论压缩成10句话呢？没有问题的，对亏了`Pluribo。这个小巧的火狐插件会锁定一个商品，收集所有的评论，然后把它们压缩成一个方便阅读的简介·。Pluribo极大方便你了解大家对一个产品的看法而不必亲自筛选一遍那些无聊的评论。对了，它还完全免费。爽的没有办法。我们以前提到过Blender。如果你是新来到免费帮，Blender是一款免费，开源的三维图形工具实力却不亚于那些昂贵的软件如3DS Max和LightWave 3D. Blender研究协会，也就是电影Big Bucks Bunny的制作公司，像他们做的电影一样正在编写一款完全用Blender制作的游戏。·游戏暂时叫做杏子，表现了一个花栗鼠寻找果子的故事·。游戏目前还在早期的开发阶段并且没有具体发布时间。如果你对这个项目感兴趣，别忘了，到了Freelinereport.com看一下。

The founder of Microsoft is stepping down today. That’s right- Bill Gates is retiring from Microsoft. According to Gates, he going to use his newly accquired “free time” to peruse his philanthropic interests. Love him or hate him, he completely revolutionized computing with his products. From DOS to Windows and from QuickBasic to Visual Studio, he’ll leave a lasting footprint on almost any computer in the world.

To commemorate the event, we’ve got a few links celebrating the big man’s leave of absence. Here’s a video from Wired, mashing up his greatest hits. And to show he has a sense of humor, here’s a video spoof starring the man himself, making fun of his last day in Microsoft.

Now that Bill Gates has officially “left the building,” who will step in to take his place? And in what direction will he or she steer Microsoft?  ZDNet does some quick speculation, and tells us that two people will replace Bill Gates- Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundy. As of yet it is uncertain as to the future of Microsoft, but lets hope things get better with time.

Of course, one of the biggest thorn’s in Microsoft’s side the last few years has been the free Operating System, Linux. Ubuntu has been making great strides, taking a once archiac and unfriendly architecture and making it sing. There is even a video comparing Vista and Linux, with the special effects of both taking center stage.

Just because Bill Gates is going away doesn’t mean that Microsoft will stop being a player in the tech sector. We’ve talked about Powerset off and on here at the Freeline. It’s the next big thing in search engines, allowing for an almost natural language search. Some people are even speculating that it might topple Google, once it works out all the kinks. It looks like Microsoft has been paying attention to all the buzz as well - Redmond has officially bought up Powerset. Many analysts predict that Microsoft will use the new technology to compete against Google. The deal should be completed by the end of the year.

Well, that’s it for today. So long Bill Gates, and good luck in the future!

QuillPill. It’s in beta right now, but any would be J.K. Rowlings should take note and get ready to write their next masterpiece on their iPhones.

TuneWiki is a hot application for iPhone fans who like to sing along to their favorite songs. It displays the lyrics across the front of your iPhone as it plays, letting you croon along like the next American Idol star that you know that you are. If you want an audience while you do it, the new version of TuneWiki now takes advantage of iPhone’s GPS system, telling you when other TuneWiki users are close by and ready for an impromptu concert.

And if you’ve got an iPhone, you’ll love our next news announcement. Looks like Google is working hard on speeding up their mobile search. They plan on using some caching technology to get this done, boosting speeds on almost every single mobile web browser available. Looks like Google is set to conquer the mobile search market too.

Next up is a Google Gears Powered MySpace Messaging engine that is super fast, and allows you to do many thing you can’t do with MySpace in your web browser. Until now, you couldn’t easily search or sort through your messages, making it hard to go back to old messages from a lost friend. But with the Gears Powered MySpace Messaging, you can now bring up messages by date and identity. And if you have a large friends list like me, you will notice a huge speed increase.

And if you’re a fan of MySpace, or any other social network for that matter, you might want to keep all of your messages in one spot, including your email. Well, you have your chance with Orgoo. You can combine your gmail, livemail or hotmail account with just about any social network, giving you one online identity.

To software geeks, the arrival of summer can only mean one thing: Google’s Summer of Code returns. Now in its fourth year, Google is expecting more than 1,100 students and 175 open source projects to take part in the festivities. In today’s edition of the Free Line, we cover four projects that are choosing to spend their summer with Google.

Anyone who has taken a high school journalism class is familiar with the desktop publishing app QuarkXpress. It’s versatile, it’s powerful… and it’s as easy to use as…a Boeing 737. For an easier alternative, try Scribus. While it contains most of the tools that QuarkXpress does, Scribus is one thing the name brand competition is not: user friendly. Scribus is available for most major operating systems — and it’s free.

As many loyal viewers of the Free Line know, OpenOffice is a great alternative to the big name word processing suites produced by Microsoft and Apple. But what if you want an alternative to the alternative? If this is the case, then AbiWord is for you. AbiWord does one thing - word processing - but it does it well. Small, lightweight and very easy to use, AbiWord is a good choice for those who dislike OpenOffice, but loathe the competition even more. And by the way, AbiWord was used in the creation of today’s Free Line Report.

Being creative is great and all, but what if you just want to leave the house? Don’t worry. Open source programmers have that covered as well. OpenStreetMap is is kind of like Google Maps, and operates under a Creative Commons license. This guide is actually created by its users. Armed with everything from GPS devices to pen and paper, participants in the project track, photograph, and write about everything they come across. These journeys, in turn, are added to the OpenStreetMap database.

And finally, if you like the idea of unwinding and have a few of those old LucasArts point-and-click adventure games lying around, then ScummVM is certainly for you. Created by uTorrent creator Ludvig Strigeus, ScummVM is intended to breathe new life into the forgotten classics like Day of the Tentacle and I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. Perhaps the best part is that it will run on most anything, from Windows XP to the iPhone. But before you run off to play Monkey Island 3, a word of warning: while the emulator might be free, most of the games are not. Go to ScummVM for a world class emulator, but go to thrift stores or eBay for the games themselves.

Google is not making any friends in France right now. The computing giant has started to give its StreetView treatment to Paris. Streetview uses hidden cameras to add real views of the actual streets to Google Maps. Some citizens are upset at Google’s tactics, citing several breach of privacy issues. Google still may have an out, however. According to French law, the pictures might still able to be posted. All Google has to do is make sure that the faces of the citizens are blurred before the site goes live. We will keep you updated on this developing story.

Twidox takes the Wikipedia concept and gives it an academic makeover. Each article is longer, more focused, and is completely peer reviewed. Though it has a definite academic bent, Twidox is a great resource for anyone wanting to learn something new.

Jimdo is the latest in a long line of services promising the end user easy site creation and free hosting. Just log in, use the specialized tools to creat a web-powered masterpiece, and save. While the user might not be able to make, say, Yahoo.com with Jimdo, it more than fits the needs of those who wish to share family photographs or artwork. Jimdo offers its services free of charge.

Locr is a new photo sharing website with a focus on geo-tagging. It enables you to use your smart phone to upload photos to an interactive map. There’s also a manual function that allows you to place non geo-tagged photos on the map by hand. Then, the cool new thing is that as you roam around the planet, Locr will automatically display photos from anyone taken nearby.

Facebook has posted some new details on the up and coming change to user profiles. The new profiles will now look more like they currently do on the iPhone. According to the reports, all the information needed will be found on five tabs. This new “tab structure” should cut down on the clutter (applications, tools, add-ons) that most Facebook profiles seem to accumulate. Expect these features to be incorporated in the near future.

If you’re confused as to what Web 3.0 is, or rather, will be, we’ve got a link to a great article that explains what Web 3.0 is and how you’ll be able to reap the benefits of this future technology.

Following on the heels of MySpace’s announcement to allow websites to bring in profile data, comes Facebook with an almost identical feature. They’re calling it FaceBook Connect.  Although it won’t actually launch for a few weeks, it will be, essentially, an overhaul of their 3rd party API which will give outside applications access to the same data that Facebook applications have now.

Google has just released an new tool called Friend Connect, which will allow you to do exactly the same thing Facebook and MySpace are planning on doing with any Open Social network. It looks like we’re about to see the full realization of Web 2.0. Pretty soon, meeting up with your friend’s online will be even easier than meeting them offline — and soon, whatever third party site you’re on, all your friends can come with you — automatically.

Fans of Twitter with latest Mac OSX are in for a surprise–included with the development tools is a hidden treat! A screen saver that displays all of your Twitter friends, built right on top of the operating system. Running the screen saver is simple: just drag and drop and away you go. When it’s done loading, it shows a wheel with your Twitter friends and their tweets.

GeoGraffiti turns your cellphone into a web 2.0 tool, enabling you to leave voice message details for free about any place you want. Verbal tips, tools, reviews of a restaurant, description of scenery, or even directions to a specific place, and then save it all so that other people with GeoGraffiti accounts can find it for free.

We have a link to an article that lists some free tools that you can use to make any Word Document work for the web.

Here’s a link to Google’s new GrandCentral software. Currently it is in closed beta, but you can request a phone number from the website, and when it goes live you can get free phone calls from any device connected to the Internet.

Another link, this time to the top free tools for going in and fixing Javascript code.

Google plans to create an oceanographic map called Google Ocean. It will allow you to browse all the different places deep under the sea — in 3D.

After being down for over three days in a row, Twitter has announced that it will reprogram their entire site from the ground up.