My apologies, but our piece on Al Gore’s Current TV has be postponed. Expect to see it tomorrow. In the meantime…

Punk. There are few words in the English language that can bring up such passion in a human being. To some, the word “punk” conjurers up images of Johnny Rotten, Joey Ramone, and/or Henry Rollins singing as loud as humanly possible to a room of angry, yet strangely happy, teenagers. To others, it is a word that describes those “rotten kids” that knock over old people’s garbage cans and casually walk on their lawns. There are even those who associate the word with a certain world champion professional wrestler. By and large, though, “punk” has come to mean one thing: Doing or saying something that will ultimately upset the “establishment,” AKA “The Man.” Our story today deals with the latter most concept.

In the world of music, “going punk” can be achieved in several different ways. The normally loud and bombastic Green Day went “punk” by writing a gentle, albeit extremely sarcastic, ballad that is still heard on soft rock stations to this day. Japanese band The Pillows go “punk” by writing and performing songs in English. Sure, most of their English-language material make absolutely no sense, but that’s the point. Big Audio Dynamite (also known as BAD), on the other hand, didn’t have to write a sappy sounding song or adopt a foreign language in order to bother “The Man.” All they did was release an album of original material on the Internet … for free … in 1997. To truly enjoy the tale that I am going to relate, you will need to know a bit of the back story.

The band Big Audio Dynamite was formed in 1984 by Mick Jones, the guitarist for legendary punk band The Clash. Unlike The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite was more concerned with having a good time than it was proving a political point. To accentuate this point — or rather, the complete and total lack of one — Jones brought a myriad of modern styles to the table, including reggae, electronica, and ’80’s-style dance music. BAD was also one of the first bands to embrace hip hop-level sampling. Nowhere is this more apparent than in their signature hit “Rush,” which relies on The Who’s “Baba O’ Reilly” to provide much of the counter melody. While not nearly as successful as Jones’ previous band, BAD was respected by fans and critics alike for embracing the unknown, both sonically and otherwise.

Fast forward to 1998. Although Big Audio Dynamite still had their loyal fan base, their days of topping the charts had long since passed. Their previous album, “F-Punk,” contained no hit singles and was panned by almost every critic alive. In an effort to return the mainstream, Mick Jones recruited former English Beat and  General Public lead singer Ranking Roger to handle the vocals on the new album, tentatively entitled “Entering a New Ride.” The only potential roadblock facing Jones and company was BAD’s record label, Radioactive Records. To say that Radioactive hated the new album was an understatement. It was so reviled, in fact, that the big brass wouldn’t even release it. Faced with what seemed to be a no-win situation, Jones did what any sane, reasonable person would have done at the time: He released the album on the Internet for free. Every week for eighteen weeks, a brand new Wave file was uploaded to a specially designed website. Sure, the band lost a bundle on the deal, but what did it really matter? Somebody, somewhere was listening to the new album, and that was enough.

Now you’re probably wondering why I consider this to be a “misfire.” After all, it really was a creative, inventive way to make the best out of a bad situation. It all comes down to six “issues” for me:

1. The File Type Issue – The average size for a four minute Wave file is roughly 45 megabytes. Now picture yourself loading that 45 megabyte file eighteen times over a “super fast” 28.8 modem.
2. The Website Issue – The website was the only place that this album was available. The second it was taken down, the album disappeared from the face of the Earth. And no, that is not an exaggeration. I spent hours looking for this album — iTunes, those quasi-legal Russian downloading sites, BitTorrent — only to hit dead end after dead end. The closest I came was a fan site that “claimed” to have the album in full. Unfortunately, it lead me to a dead link.
3. The “Money” Issue – As I said above, no one made a dime off of this.
4. The “Computer” Issue – Not many people had CD burners in 1997. If you wanted to listen to this album, you either had to go to your computer or hook up a cassette deck to the sound card. While the former was good for the occasional listen, it made repeat listening all but impossible. As for the latter, well … even the best tape could not match the sound of a Wave file. Sure, it was better than nothing, but still.
5. The Lack of Proper Advertising - Despite their handful of hit recordings, Big Audio Dynamite wasn’t necessarily the biggest band in the world. As such, not many people actually knew about this until much, much later. A bigger band would have been able to advertise a bit more.
6. The Novel Approach – It’s a new idea. Problems like those mentioned above are bound to happen.

…And there you have it. While it might not have been the most practical or “cost effective” idea out there, “Entering a New Ride” helped to establish the “downloading” culture we know and love today. And that, my friends, is about as “punk” as a human being can possibly get.

- The world of Top-Level Domains has yet another superstar name on its hands — .ME Originally designed for the Eastern European country of Montenegro to signify its independence from Serbia, the fledgling TLD has become a hit with users who wish to give their sites a “personal touch.” According to industry site WebProNews, the relatively new .ME domain has been registered roughly 250,000 times since the initial “sunrise period” last year, and is only continuing to grow in popularity. The .ME TLD is available now through several registrars, including GoDaddy, Afilias, and the Montenegro-based Me.net.

- Despite rumors to the contrary, advertising will not be coming to a Twitter account near you anytime soon. In a post on the official Twitter blog, co-founder Biz Stone says that running banner ads “have always been low on our list of interesting ways to generate revenue.” Still, he’s not quite ready to close the door on ads just yet. Writes Stone: “We say traditional web banner advertising isn’t interesting to us which is true. However, to say we are philosophically opposed to any and all advertising is incorrect… [F]acilitating connections between businesses and individuals in meaningful and relevant ways is compelling. We’re going to leave the door open for exploration in this area.”

- The search engine known as Kumo might be making a public appearence sooner than anyone has ever expected. According to those close to the situation, Microsoft is planning to unveil the much anticipated replacement for Live Search as early as next week. In addition to the new name, Kumo is expected to bring a few much needed “enhancements and innovations” to the table, including the ability to group search results by category. The folks at Redmond reportedly have high hopes for the new engine, which could conceivably put them in the same elite category as Google and Yahoo. Microsoft is currently third in the “search engine arms race” with a disappointing 8.2% adoption rate.

- Cable network ESPN has struck a content deal with YouTube. According to the terms of the agreement, the sports giant will provide the online video megastar/Google subsidiary with original, ad-sponsored material designed to “compliment” the network’s programming. All of the videos in question will be available on the base YouTube site, but will feature a video player designed especially for ESPN. No live games or programming events are currently planned, but many believe that content from the broadband network ESPN 360 will be added in due time. A solid launch date is as of yet unknown.

- Popular music service Pandora has received a major upgrade. Called Pandora One, the new strategy is designed to “reward” paying customers while not “punishing” those who prefer the free-to-use player. Aside from the total annihilation of both banner and audio advertising from the site, the “pay service” has one major thing going for it — a desktop application powered by the Adobe AIR runtime environment. Thanks to the app, users can now stream their music at a higher bitrate (192 kbps), fill that space left by the advertising with fully customizable backgrounds, and more. Critics  point out that while the program does improve the overall desktop experience, Pandora’s penchant for repitition makes long-term use difficult. Others say that the app’s price ($36) might be a bit too steep for many users. Still, there is one thing that almost everyone can agree on: despite its faults, Pandora One is a nice little antidote to the predicable, sanitized nature of most FM broadcasts. Pandora One is available now for all paying customers.

The never-ending comedy of errors that is Twitter’s attempt to monetize continues in earnest. Citing that he was hit with “an offer [he] couldn’t refuse,” Twitter co-founder Biz Stone announced Friday that two news investors will be joining the team — Benchmark and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). While no official numbers have been released, those close to all three parties say the deal weighs in at $35 million. At press time, Stone and his team are planning to use the cash to fund and build various “revenue-generating products.” As many fans of the Free Line know, monetizing Twitter has been somewhat of a hot topic as of late. Last week, Stone mentioned in an interview that corporate clients might have to pay to use the microblogging service in the near future. He then quickly rescinded the comment, chalking it up nothing more than a bad case of “thinking out loud.”

In other news, Google Japan has issued an apology for paying bloggers to recommend their products. The practice, which is banned under Google’s own Terms of Service contract, was “unearthed” by two bloggers last week. “At Google, we believe in being open and transparent with our users,” Senior Marketing Manager Koji Baba said in a statement. “We would like to apologize for this episode, and express our gratitude to the community of users and bloggers who brought this to our attention so that we could put a stop to it.” Many users have questioned the sincerity of the apology, saying it was more of a PR move than an admission of guilt. So as punishment for its deeds, Google Japan lowered their PageRank from a nine to a five. Neither the length of the punishment, nor the reaction to it, are known at this time.

The controversial exploits of Google Japan isn’t the only thing that the front office has to worry about. Google Radio Ads, an experimental service that promised to bring the Google way of doing things to traditional radio broadcasts, will be shutting its doors. Those close to the situation cite the questionable economy, combined with a growing interest in online audio advertising, as possible reasons for the move. At press time, Radio Ad’s last day is May 31st.

Not all news coming from One Infinite Loop is bad, however. High profile subsidiary YouTube has signed a new content deal with Sony BMG. Under the terms of the deal, YouTube will make an undisclosed, “upfront” payment to Sony, then split any resulting revenue in half. Aside from saving hundreds of tributes videos from receiving the “silent treatment,” the agreement protects the wealth of rare and interesting clips that call the service home. Among the artists receiving the proverbial “stay of execution” are Billy Joel, Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, and Rick Astley.

And finally: Despite what some might tell you, there’s more to web 2.0 than just business. Every now again, we need something a bit more lighthearted and entertaining. That’s where the Bakumatsu Koshanin Generator comes in to play. The Bakumatsu Koshanin Generator is an interesting new photo service that specializes in giving your cutting edge, 21st century snapshots a quaint, 1940’s makeover. Using the site could not be easier: just choose the photo you want to alter and press the “convert” button. Within seconds, your pictures are transformed into a blurry, black-and-white masterpiece. Simple and interesting, the Bakumatsu Koshanin Generator lets you take a fun little trip to the past while staying firmly rooted in the present.

Not everyone is a fan of MySpace and Facebook. The social networking sites have been banned by both Apple Stores and the Maryland General Assembly due to the distraction that those sites might cause. In the case of Apple, the ban on MySpace is designed to gently remind the populous that their stores are actual stores, not glorified libraries that happen to sell iPods. Concerning the Maryland General Assembly, the purpose of the ban is to not only cut down on the amount of malware found on government computers, but to force employees to focus on their work. As controversial as the Maryland situation seems, it could always be worse. In October 2007, six bureaucrats in Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture were discovered devoting their entire work days to editing Wikipedia entries covering popular sci-fi series Gundam. The situation became such a political nightmare that ministry official Tsutomu Shimomura had to declare that his office was “not in charge of Gundam.”

Sticking with social networking for a moment, MySpace has figured out a way to make some money off of music videos. Similar to their “Auditude” music system, the new scheme adds a semi-transparent advertisement overlay to the bottom portion of the video. In the first clip fitted with the new ads — “Desolation Row” by My Chemical Romance — viewers are reminded that they can buy the track in both vinyl and digital formats from Amazon. While interesting, the ad plan is nothing new. Video mega-site and potential competitor YouTube unveiled a similar program three weeks ago. Currently available on only two clips, the astounding success of those videos all but guarantee that users will be seeing the overlay ads in their favorite MySpace videos very, very soon.

In other news, web mail mainstay Hotmail has received a few upgrades. Aside from various speed, design, and storage space improvements, the Hotmail team seems to have the wonders of web 2.0 and mobile technology on their collective minds. Users can now follow the social exploits of those in their address book without leaving their inbox, add “interactive features” such as maps and news clips to their messages, and sync up their accounts with their mobile device with ease thanks to expanded POP3 support. Many within the industry feel the new tools will help the Microsoft service further separate itself from the likes of Google and Yahoo, each of which have experimented with their own slate of “social mail” features in the past few months. The new, improved, and decidedly more social Hotmail is available now for all users.

Elsewhere: As longtime fans of the Free Line are aware of, there are quite literally dozens of text editors and word processors out there. You can go “for profit” (Word, Word Perfect) or you can go completely free and open (OpenOffice.org, AbiWord); stripped down (Notepad, Emacs) or extra fancy (Lotus Symphony, Adobe InCopy); proprietary (AppleWorks, KWord) or web-based (Google Docs, Zoho Writer). If all of those don’t float your boat, you can always go new. In this case, the “new” that I speak of is Shutterborg, an online app with a few interesting tricks up its sleeve. In addition to the standard slate of features, Shutterborg lets you fully edit a website without saving it (and the 97 billion associated files that goes with it) first. The result is a simple writing experience that is, at the same time, almost completely hassle free. While it isn’t necessarily big on other features in this stage of the game — files can only be saved in HTML format, for example — there is definitely enough there to have it listed among the elite. Shutterborg is available now for all users.

And finally: Shutterborg isn’t the only online application willing to take some chances. Aviary, the folks behind the Photoshop-esque Phoenix image editor, has unleashed Raven, a graphics program with a distinct vector twist. Widely regarded as a difficult medium to work in, vector graphics have largely been ignored by the the open source and online crowds. Despite its intuitive interface and attractive price tag, don’t expect the program to be a proverbial walk in the park. Vectors are a pain, free software or not. That said, the program does its best to make the process as pain-free as possible. All in all, Raven is perfect for anyone who wants to give vectors a shot, but isn’t willing to spend $600 on Adobe Illustrator to do so.

Okay gang. After two weeks of hype, we here at the Free Line proudly present our interview with Jonathan Sasse, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Slacker. Special thanks go out to Seana Sullivan, who helped make this interview possible. With that said, here we go…

Andy Mancini: What exactly is Slacker?

Jonathan Sasse: Slacker is a radio music service. We deliver music to our listeners for free at our website at Slacker.com. We have licenses with the major labels and publishers along with thousands of independent labels and publishers as well. We have about a million songs in our library.

Now there are a couple of different ways people can listen to music on Slacker. You can come to the website and choose one of our genre stations that are hand programmed by music professionals from across the country. You can then tweak the station so it would be more like what you prefer. You can either rate songs by marking them as favorites or banning songs or artists that you don’t like, or you can go and edit a station. You can even go and make a very custom station with hundreds or dozen of artists. There are a number of choices that you can make to make the station more like what you like. We also have a free service that you can listen to for as long as you like.

AM: Aside from the website, where else could users access the service?

JS: We have players on the Blackberry and iPhone. We also sell hardware devices that let you take the same, free music experience with you on the go.

AM: Aside from the radios, what sets your company apart from the other radio services?

JS: Everybody has a different philosophy about how to deliver content to people. We tend to be more like traditional radio in the sense of how we program things. Your radio experience will be driven more in the sense of a “breadth of programming” that stays somewhat relevant to what you are looking to listen to. Our selections, especially in our genre stations, are hand picked from someone who knows the genre very well. They might be a former or current terrestrial radio programmer, or they could have come from satellite radio. Either way, these are people who know their genres very, very well and they are selecting songs that are appropriate for that genre.

The difference between that and a terrestrial and satellite station, though … When you talk about “broadcast radio,” their playlists and set lists are going to be set up for when you’re more likely to be listening to the station. [Because of this], their stations tend to be a bit narrower. They’re on a heavy rotation to make sure that you are hearing certain popular songs that you expect to hear. They don’t know exactly when you’re listening, so they have to keep the rotation pretty small. You end up not getting a good music experience with broadcast radio. With our site, since it’s programmed essentially for each individual person, it doesn’t matter when you may or may not be listening. You are always going to get a unique experience for you.

Against online radio … There are a number of different things. There are some sites that just play music. There are others that do “sounds like…” selections — if you like a certain song, you might like this song because they sound similar. What we do is more based upon popularity and artist relationships, along with our DJ’s influence. So you’re going to get a very personal touch from a very deep library.

AM: Do you see Slacker as being a viable competitor to more traditional, “over-the-air”-based products like terrestrial radio and satellite?

JS: We are certainly a strong alternative to those [technologies]. If you’re listening to broadcast radio today, and you’re listening to music, we’re a good alternative. You’re going to get a better music experience for sure. The question then becomes “can we provide it in the same way, or in the same places that you listen to that content today?” That’s probably our biggest gap.

AM: Has Slacker benefited from disaffected satellite radio fans angry over the merger of Sirius and XM?

JS: We’ve seen a tremendous amount of traffic come to us from the merger, [due to the] fallout from stations that might have been cut of formats that might have been changed. [Many are] looking for that kind of experience that they used to have with XM and Sirius. That [experience] may not exist today in the way that they may have liked previously. We’ve seen them come to us, as we don’t have limitations on our number of stations.

AM: What sets you apart from the more traditional radio providers?

JS: Whether it’s FM radio, HD radio, or satellite radio … The one thing that they share is that they’re broadcasting one content to everybody. There’s no personalization that happens there. Obviously, one of the biggest downfalls in FM radio is the lack of selection and the quality of the content. HD radio improves the sound quality and the number of channels, but there’s no “personal touch” to it. It’s still very limited. They can’t have hundreds or thousands of stations that they can play for different people. And XM/Sirius … Both previously and with the merger now, there are bandwidth limitations. You’re going to have some suffering of audio quality, but you’re also going to have a limited number of stations to choose from. That’s always going to be a problem with that kind of delivery mechanism.

AM: The “Internet radio” stereotype is that of a geeky person in his or her basement, playing nothing but Japanese pop songs or obscure Frank Zappa records on their own private SHOUTcast station. How does your company combat that image?

JS (chuckles): A lot of things have changed. As Internet radio emerged, what you described was quite common. You’d get these kind of obscure streams of music or other content. Some of that of evolved into podcasts, and other parts of that content evolved into “personalized radio.” One of the big changing factors there was the evolution of digital music players. Whether it was mp3 players or digital music services … it definitely [removed the image of needing] to be a technophile in order to enjoy music like that. It started bringing more of a mainstream audience into that type of a platform.

Now the problem is, with the “mp3 player” architecture … It’s certainly something that’s very personalized, which is something that radio had never had before, but it is a lot of work. One of the things that made Internet radio so great was that it was pretty easy [to use]. That’s what makes radio great in general. All you have to do is push a button and the music just plays. You don’t have to go get music. You don’t have to manage music. You don’t have to rip CDs or plug in USB cables and all these other things. It just happens. Now behind the scenes, there’s work being done for you, but you don’t have to do it. [Slacker] has kind of merged these worlds together a bit. We’ve taken the very highly personalized mp3 player experience and the playlist experience that you get with that, and merged it with a radio experience that is very easy and powerful. Our name kind of implies that as well. We take the “work” part out of having a great music experience.

AM: Online player aside, which is a “bigger priority” of the company: the radio or the mobile programs?

JS: First and foremost, our priority is around “service.” At the end of the day, we’re still a music radio service. That’s what we do. It’s personal radio. The fact that we have our own hardware that we’re available in other types of hardware is really just a way to make sure that people have greater access to Slacker content. So as we move to the iPhone, the Blackberry platform, our own Slacker hardware and to other hardware that supports the Slacker service, even to Sony television and Logitech streaming devices … It’s to further enable our listeners to have a chance to get Slacker where ever they go. In the long term, that’s what we are. We are a radio music service company, and we will enable as many platforms, partners, and devices as we can.

AM: Was it difficult negotiating with the major record labels?

JS: Certainly. There’s a challenge to creating new types of licenses and new types of content delivery. To their credit, I think the music industry has been embroiled in this challenge of delivering music to people over the Internet longer than most. The video and motion picture companies are just getting to it themselves. But the music guys have been around long enough to see where the pitfalls and challenges are and when they need to step up. The type of solution that we were proposing seemed to [point at] the direction that the industry was [moving towards]. We have experience working with the labels. We have worked with them as parts of previous companies, so knowing [them] is a key component. As you’re going into the business of delivering music, having the content owners and publishers in support of what you are trying to do is certainly better than creating enemies.

AM: Are there any currently any record label “hold outs?”

JS: No, not really. We’re constantly working with smaller labels and emerging labels to make sure that they know how to put agreements into place with us. That is going to be an ongoing process. We’re constantly securing new content for the service. But at the end of the day, every major label, even the “second tier” of the larger labels, distributors, and independents are all on board. At this point, all of the major content is already in the system.

AM: How does the free service contribute to the overall “bottom line” of the company?

JS: There’s a number of things. One thing about [offering a] free service is that it gives our customers and listeners a very easy way to come and experience something, whether its a music service or otherwise. The opportunity to have people come in and start listening to music, creating stations, and experiencing what we have to offer without having to pay anything or get into any long-term agreements certainly helps “expand [our] universe.” We intentionally set up our business model and our revenue streams to make sure that there’s revenue opportunities for us [in the free service, while setting] up a great experience for our listeners. I think that that is really the key. Certainly you can go in a say “this is a subscription only service,” [but then] the cost to acquire customers goes way up, your total audience goes way down, and you have to be extremely successful in bringing new traffic in and monetizing them right away. In this case, we have millions of people who enjoy listening to the service. They become advocates of the service. It changes the way they listen to music, which is an important step for us. The more people we have [listening and talking about the service], the better it is for both the company and the industry as a whole. The free service is a great way to get that audience expanded. As long as we have revenue opportunities, whether its through advertisers or from free listeners who are looking to purchase hardware or what have you, [we're fine.] It’s an ecosystem that works.

AM: While doing my research for this interview, I ran across plans for adding a “satellite” service. According to the write ups, the system would allow radios that are not near WiFi access points to refresh their playlist. Is this something that your company is still interested in doing?

JS: It’s technology that we have. The one thing that we found is that if you look at the world as a whole, there’s a number of regions that are not as connected. Certainly there are some “very” connected places from a wireless perspective — most of Asia, Europe, the United States — where the major markets have great WiFi access in some form. There are other parts of the world that just don’t. In some of those areas, there’s a growing need for something like a satellite distribution model. You can turn on entire regions of the world just by broadcasting satellite content and smartly caching it. What we’re focused on right now is on the US market. We’ve seen the [the expansion of] WiFi networks. We’ve seen the popularity and ubiquity of 3G networks on the mobile side increase. What we can do now is deliver a great Slacker experience in both the United States and North America [in which] the satellites are not as critical to the system. As we “step out” to different parts of the world, it could be something that becomes a bit more important to us. But certainly today, in our market, we can rely heavily on wireless and 3G for content acquisition. Because of that, the satellites become a little less relevant.

From our perspective, it doesn’t really matter what the network type is, be it satellite, a WiMax network, 3G, EDGE, CDMA, WiFi or what have you. [Right now], we sort of cache content ahead of time — sometimes thousands of songs in some of our hardware models — so you can listen without any sort of connectivity for weeks or months at a time. In the other case, if we have potentially a 3G or a WiMax network, we can have live access to content, or even caching it in a hybrid model. As the networks evolve and the connected markets grow, those type of connections are something that we would probably use. Again, from our perspective, it doesn’t really matter right now. We have Blackberries that have 3G and WiFi connections and the ability to cache content to SD cards. We take advantage of all of those opportunities to make the experience better. And as better networks emerge, we’ll use those as well.

AM: I noticed that your company recently released a home dock. Are there any other peripherals in the pipeline, such as a car dock?

JS: We’re always looking at different opportunities there. The car is an appealing place to be. Slacker is great in the car. Getting the music into the car is the next tricky step. There are plenty of aftermarket opportunities out there. We’ve looked at everything, whether it’s Bluetooth receivers or FM transmitters or line-in methods to your auxiliary port. The home dock that we released is certainly a step forward in that. The home dock is flexible — I got one in my car and it’s actually fairly convenient. There’s no “magic bullet” for the car when it comes to getting a device to [work properly]. Again, we are evaluating ways that would make the car experience even better. I think that you’ll be hearing something from us in the future on that front.

AM: Once again, thank you for the interview.

JS: Thanks for your time.

As you may or may not know, the Free Line will be turning the big “one-0″ January 21st. To help commemorate this event, we have something a bit different lined up. The details are bit sketchy at the moment, but rest assured, it will be worth it. We will announce the details as soon as all of the particulars are ironed out. Due to all of the research involved, today’s journey through the world of “free” will be slightly abbreviated. We will be back to our old self in a day or two. In the mean time…

The world of online music is growing faster than anyone expected. According to research firm IFPI, online music stores have made about $3.7 billion in revenue in 2008, a 25% increase from the previous year. Digital downloads now account for 20% of record sales. “Music companies have changed their whole approach to doing business, reshaped their operations and responded to the dramatic transformation in the way music is distributed and consumed,” said IFPI chairman John Kennedy in an interview with WebProNews. As impressive as that may seem, it still does not account for the 40 billion files traded illegally last year. “Governments are beginning to accept that, in the debate over ‘free content’ and engaging ISPs in protecting intellectual property rights, doing nothing is not an option if there is to be a future for commercial digital content.”

In other news, Lotus Notes is about to enter the world of social networking, in a way. Notes developer IBM is currently working on a plugin that will link the business software legend to LinkedIn. Aside from bringing various LinkedIn tools and features to Lotus party, the plugin will be able to display information about your contacts in a handy side bar. While it isn’t exactly “100%” as of yet, the new plugin makes a good thing even better. Expect to see the new tool sometime in 2009.

Finally: Microsoft news headlines are coming to an email box near you. ” You can get top headlines, headlines for a specific area like business or world news, or the latest stories related to a search you define,” says product manager Jacquelyn Krones. “You can set up as many different alerts as you want and send them to any email address associated with a Live ID.” While the idea might be new to Microsoft and the Windows Live family, it is definitely not a “new idea.” Trendsetters such as Google and Yahoo have been offering similar features for a while now. Windows Live Headline Alerts are available now for US residents only.

Google is number one in the world of online video yet again, and it’s all thanks to YouTube. Roughly 5.37 billion Google-controlled videos were loaded in October according to respected pollster comScore. Out of those videos, nearly 98% featured the familiar “YouTube” branding. Coming in second is MySpace parent Fox Media, which saw 520 million downloads and a 3.8% share of the market. While it is impressive, the number does not even come close to that of Google/YouTube, which enjoyed a staggering 39.7% share. Other notables include Yahoo (363 million views, 2.7% share), Microsoft (286 million users, 2.1% share), and Hulu (235 million users, 1.7% share).

Last week we talked about Facebook Connect, the new service that lets users use their Facebook IDs at a variety of web 2.0 hot spots. Now it’s MySpace’s turn to join the “all for one” party with MySpace Open Platform. The big news concerning Open Platform is less about where the new scheme can be used, and more about whom is actually backing it. The new service is compatible with OpenID, OpenSocial, and most notably, Google Friend Connect. Many within the industry sees Open Platform as a more “long term solution” than Facebook Connect, mainly due to the OpenID partnership. “The beauty of open standards is how easy they make it for users anywhere on the web to connect with the people they care about,” Google’s David Glazer told WebProNews. “We’re excited to work with MySpace.” The MySpace team is also working with British telecom Vodafone on a mobile implementation of the service.

Elsewhere, the critics are being less than kind when it comes to Experimental Search, the new search feature from Ask.com. Like many modern search engines, Ask.com incorporates paid advertisements into their results page. Unlike these engines, however, Ask doesn’t differenciate the paid ads from the actual listings. The result is something closer to a “full page ad” than a page of search results. Officials at Ask.com have disputed the claims, saying the monsterous ad was due to the actions of a “rouge syndicator” that have since been dealt with.

In other news, bookmarking mega-site Delicious is now available for mobile phones everywhere. The new, more portable version of the service features everything its older brothers does, only in a smaller package. Since it’s designed to work on as many different handsets as possible, don’t be surprised if (or rather, when) the service doesn’t physically look all that great on newer equipment such as the iPhone. Aside from the physical appearence, the only real drawback is the dreaded “beta” tag — some users have already run into their share of bugs and mistakes. Even with the “beta” label fully attached, the new Mobile Delicious is better than almost anything your cell phone currently offers.

And finally, we have Twones, a Dutch music suggestion service with a distinct social flare. Instead of operating primarily from a website, Twones does its business from a browser extension. Each time you listen to a song, the extension makes a note of it. The song is then sent to your personal music feed, which houses your overall playlist. Others can review the burgeoning list, leave suggestions, and link to their own private lists. While some might fault the service for lacking a music library of its own, most will pay the minor inconvenience no mind. Twones is available now by invitation only.

Full-on display ads are coming to Yahoo. Unlike Google, which still uses “traditional” text-based advertising in the search engine results, the new slate of Yahoo ads will feature logos, expanded user options, and even specialized search bar when applicable. “Really, when you think about it, there is no reason that display, video, and other graphical ads can’t be mixed in on search results pages,” writes TechCrunch contributor Eric Schonfeld. “As long as they are not too blaring, I think they’ll work.”

Video on Facebook is about get more defined … literally. Hot on the heels of the previously reported “YouTube HD” project, the social networking giant is now offering all videos in a 1280 by 720 format (720p for you high-def types). Users will also have the option to post these enhanced videos anywhere they please, thereby opening the service up to an entirely new audience. Many within the industry say the move shows that the Facebook team is on track to becoming a major player in the world of online video. The new and improved videos are available now to all Facebook users.

Elsewhere, Google subsidiary YouTube has teamed up with music licensing concern Rumblefish to “bring the noise” (or, if you prefer, music) to an online video near you. Called AudioSwap, the service allows users to add a professionally recorded, completely legal audio track to their video. The only drawback to the service, aside from the fact that none of the Rumblefish bands are exactly “music megastars,” is the fact that the songs will completely erase the current audio track. While the dubbing issues might not be all that important to most users, those who need music/dialog interaction would be wise to look elsewhere. AudioSwap is up and running now.

In other news of the auditory nature, Delicious now has a soundtrack. Thanks to the power of Yahoo’s FoxyTunes music player technology, users can listen to play lists designed to accompany certain bookmark lists. “Our good friends at Delicious are providing a great place to store everything you find on the Internet and have long been committed to supporting mp3 playback,” says Stephen Garcia, manager of the Yahoo Music Blog. “The introduction of Yahoo! Music’s FoxyPlayer extends the playback experience by allowing continuous play of multiple bookmarks as one big playlist.” According to Garcia, several file types and formats are accepted by the service, including podcasts. To use the new service, simply go to the “system:media:audio” tag within Delicious.

And finally, we have KLS Mail Backup. As the name suggests, KLS backs up both your inbox and your browser quickly and effectively. Unlike most programs of its ilk, the program keeps an automatic backup of your files running at all times. Each backup, both automatic and otherwise, is kept in a zip file for easy storage. Easy to set up and even easier to use, KLS Mail Backup is the perfect “plan b” for anyone worried about losing their information. KLS Mail Backup is compatible with all major email programs and browsers save for Outlook, Opera, and Chrome. An update that would include those programs is supposedly under development.

Google has brought the world to the iPhone … well, in map form anyway. Unlike many of the phone’s other apps, Google Maps puts the iPhone’s tilting and touch features to good use. It even cross references sites such as Wikipedia, giving you facts and information about an area while you’re looking at the map. Also of note is the web browser. Instead of hijacking the built-in Safari browser and twisting it to fit its own purposes, Google Maps brings its own to the party. The Webkit-based browser is designed for map-related projects only. Everything else linked from your map goes to Safari. Google for the iPhone is available now in the Apps Store.

There are a few things the average person can bank upon — the sun rising, wall-to-wall political advertisements in the month of October, and telemarketing calls. Even with the advent of “do not call” lists, those lovely “tele-salesmen” still find their way onto your phone. When this happens, don’t get mad, get EveryCall. EveryCall is a handy social service that exposes the 1-800 numbers caller ID services usually hides. You can then post your comments on the number, making sure that no one else has to go through what you did. Easy to use, EasyCall helps even the score between you and the telemarketing industry.

Elsewhere, we have Popori.us. Popori.us is an interesting little web tool that not only tells you about the popularity of your blog or website, but others as well. All of the major tracking and listing tools are covered, from Google to Yahoo to Delicious. Unlike most outfits of this nature, Popori.us is not based around difficult code or graphs. Instead, the service uses a series of widgets and gadgets. Thanks to Popori.us, no one will ever forget how popular your homestead on the web truly is.

Next up we have the new kid on the mixtape block, 8 Tracks. 8 Tracks lets you upload up to eight simple music tracks, add liner notes and cover art, and then share it with a friend. In true web 2.0 fashion, you can also embed those songs in your personal site, blog, or MySpace page. It’s a fairly interesting service, although the eight track limit can get to be pretty annoying pretty quickly. Aside from the minor gripe, 8 Tracks is perfect for anyone who wants to share their music tastes with the world. Just a bit of warning, though: there is a clear line between pushing the Free Line and being a pirate. Make sure that you stay on the proper side.

And finally: One of the most intriguing web apps to come to our desktops as of late is MultiColr. MultiColr allows you search through Flickr for images not by keyword, but by color instead. You can choose from up to ten different colors, each giving you some really detailed and original imagery. All images found by MultiColr are covered by the Creative Commons license, meaning that editing and reworking that image of your dreams in not only encouraged, it’s allowed. Thanks to MultiColr, finding the perfect picture is as easy as picking a color.

The line between traditional journalism and social media sites appears to be blurring slightly. According to a poll conducted by Bulldog Reporter and TEKgroup International, Inc, around 75% of journalists interviewed said that they use social media sites to research their stories. This is an almost 8% increase from the previous year. 38% also mentioned that they visit sites such as MySpace and Facebook at least once a month to supplement their research, up nearly 10% from 2007. While the use of “modern” methods might be gaining in popularity, there is still something to be said about tradition — 76.3% say that they prefer getting their news fix by reading their local newspapers.

Google Analytics, the online darling of marketers the world over, has officially been updated. The buzzword for this update is definitely “customization.” Analytics users can now make their own custom reports, break their user statistics down into easily manageable groups, and create animated charts based upon their data. The service is now also compatible with AdSense, allowing users to keep track of their related data in real time. Google also announced the creation of a new API, which will let developers create widgets and plug-ins. The new and improved Google Analytics is online now. The API will be “coming soon.”

Hot on the heels of the big Wal-Mart music store relaunch, we have Lala. Simply put, the folks over at Lala are trying to take the idea of “online music” into new and exciting directions. Instead of buying traditional, downloadable tracks right off the bat, you purchase a streaming, browser-based version of the track (or “web song,” as they call it). Each web song can be accessed an unlimited amount of times and cost ten cents. You can then “upgrade” the chosen track to full MP3 status for 79 cents more. Even after upgrading, the web song is still available to you. Highly original, Lala is perfect for anyone who likes to have a choice when it comes to how they want their music to be delivered.

Elsewhere, famed photography firm Fujifilm is trying their hand at photo editing. Similar to web apps such as Flickr and Photobucket, SeeHere aims to take the imperfections out of your photography. Unlike the others, SeeHere attempts to keep things as simple as possible. While this is good news for the less “technically inclined,” experienced users might find the overall system to be a bit lacking. Those looking to import files from services like Photoshop Express and Picasa will have to look elsewhere as well. On the plus side, SeeHere boasts free, unlimited storage space and a variety of printing options. Fujifilm SeeHere is available in both as a downloadable Windows program and as a web application.

And finally: Every now and again, even the best of us need some help getting motivated. For that, we here at the Free Line suggest giving Noomii a try. Noomii is a social network designed to get you up and working vigorously on your dream project, or projects, if you prefer. What sets this social service apart from the myriad of self-help programs out there is the innovative “pair coaching system.” Immediately after you sign up, you are paired with another user. You and your new found partner take turns helping each other out. Easy to use and even easier to keep up with, Noomii is great for anyone who wants to see how motivating a social network can truly be.