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 video streaming website Hulu, a joint project created by Fox and NBC, plans to lift its veil of secrecy this month and let the world see the future of television, online. The videos will be television shows aired previously, supported completely by ads. A sneak preview last October left a big impression on users, wowing even the most skeptical pundits.

Well it looks like Yahoo isn’t the only website that Microsoft wants to buy. Apparently, both Microsoft and Google are making bids for the user generated news site, Digg.com. The founder of Digg says these claims are not true, but Michael Arrington of TechCrunch says his inside source still stands behind his earlier statement.

Thunderbird, a free email client, is getting its third release next month. This email application will get a major overhaul, including the addition of calendar support, instant messaging, and better searching.

Google Operating System is a great blog that gives you lots of tips and tricks for using all of Google’s web applications. Do you need to add page numbers to Google Docs? Want to create filters for Google Reader? Well, Google Operating System shows you how, and does so in a way that’s easy to follow and fun to read.

Do you have a great idea and want to raise some money to fund it? Fundable might be right up your alley. In about a minute or so you can create a Fundable collection that allows you to gather money simply and easily to finance any project — from a short film to a snowboarding trip. Check it out at fundable.com.

**中文版视频：

Fox跟Abc合做创建的流媒体视频网站Hulu，计划在这个月向公众揭开它的神秘面纱并向世人展示网络电视的未来。视频内容为首先在电视上播出过的节目，完全通过广告来运营。它去年10月的泄露版给用户留下了十分深刻的印象，甚至征服了那些最苛刻的观众。

看起来微软并不是只对雅虎的收购感兴趣。显然的，微软跟Google正在争夺那个由用户产生新闻的网站，Digg.com。Digg的创立者否认了这一传言，但TechCrunch的Michael Arrington说来自内部的消息仍然能够证实他的说法。

雷鸟，这个免费的email客户端，将要下个月放出它的第三代产品。这个email程序被进行了彻底的翻新，包括日程表，即时通讯和更好的搜索功能。

Google操作系统，是一个可以提供丰富的Google网络程序使用技巧的博客。你想知道在Google文件里如何加入页码吗？想知道如何在Google Reader里加入过滤器吗？喔，Google操作系统会用一种简单有趣的方式告诉你。

你是不是有一个伟大的想法并希望有人资助你去实现呢？Fundable也许是正适合你。你可以在1分钟左右的时间创建一个项目意向，它能使你找钱去资助任何项目变得简单容易，不论是一个小短片或是一次滑板旅行。一定浏览fundable.com。

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You might be surprised to learn that Google’s pay per click advertising revenue is not growing as much as expected the last two years. In fact, the growth last year was flat, and it dropped 7% in the month of December alone.

In the internet marketing world, Brand for Power is doing a free teleseminar series with marketing experts on branding for your business. I’ll be one of the speakers and there are many others who worked on online branding for companies like Apple, Pizza Hut and Staples.

Digg has released a new Firefox extension that will allow you to see the current number of Diggs for every web page you visit. You can also see the last ten comments and the first sentence of the description. And it will also show any previous stories submitted to Digg from the same Domain.

Adobe is trying to bridge the gap between your online and offline data with the new release of Adobe AIR. The idea is to no longer have data available only online by making a copy on your hard drive. Like, if you need to check your Google Calendar, but you don’t have an internet connection right then. Adobe AIR will make things like that possible.

Cake Financial has just released its very own Facebook app that lets you view the stock portfolios of your friends. And these are real portfolios by the way- not examples, or ones used in a virtual stock market- it’s the real thing, done in real time. Kind of cool for investing clubs – but it makes you remember where they’re going to draw the line at too much information.

Last week my friend John Reese, the guy who brought us Blog Rush, released his new Traffic Jam software. This cool new utility allows you to speed-read your way through thousands of blogs for quick and easy access to the most popular topics in the blogosphere. Using Traffic Jam you can title your next blog post using the most popular themes and get more traffic to your blog. You can even share links to big blogs, and discover new ones — all in a few seconds. Very cool idea — thanks, John!

Paul Graham released a new essay this week — it’s pretty thought provoking. It’s called Six Principals for Making New Things. He explains what made the VC funding website, Y Combinator, such a success. I won’t spoil any of the details here, but as usual - Paul Graham gives some great advice to both Startup Businesses and Venture Capitalists, too.

Social Blade is a new program that launched in Public beta this week. This cool new web app collects data from Digg and displays interesting stats on the articles that hit the front page, INCLUDING how many BURIES a post receives and the friend voting percentages. Really fascinating stuff at a glance.

Flickr has added nofollow tags to their image descriptions, which makes it harder to use Flickr for SEO purposes. Bummer. But as of yet, these nofollow tags are only for IMAGE descriptions — so you can still put links into your Set and Collective descriptions and there’s no nofollow tags on those links.

SheerSEO is a tool that lets you monitor up to 200 keywords at a time so you can get up to the minute results for any website. It tracks your progress over time, and you can see not only where your page ranks for a bunch of keywords in Google and Yahoo, but you can also see how much TRAFFIC the keywords are generating. Very slick.

And a quick reminder — if you want to stay up to speed on Web 2.0 in just 2.0 minutes a day, join our email list or grab the RSS feed.

So, what is the Free Line, anyway? Watch this short video to learn how giving away more — for Free — may be the best thing you can do for business.