JournalSpace has been knocked off of the Internet – literally. Instead of running a backup server, the folks behind the blogging service chose instead to employ a “mirrored RAID” system, which automatically copied data from one hard drive to another. A few days ago, a former employee went and erased the data found on the primary drives. Said “data” was then copied over to the backup mirror drives, erasing any sort of real backup that might have existed. Although most of the service was indeed lost in the debacle, most of the site’s PHP code was found on a separate server. At press time, the owners are planning to release the surviving code to the open source community and sell the various logos and domain spaces on the open market.

Internet Explorer is yet again the number one browser on the Internet, according to polling site Net Applications. The durable browser from Mircosoft clocked in with a 69.77% market share. Coming in second is Firefox, which finished the month of November with a 20.78% share. The survey is notable in that it is the first time that Internet Explorer has come in with a share below 70%. Some within the industry that feel the weakening browser stats prove that Microsoft’s period of dominance is coming to an end. “Thirteen years after entering the Internet industry, Microsoft is still running a distant third in the Internet game, despite having more advantages that any industry participant could ever dream of,” writes the always controversial Henry Blodget. “If nothing else, [the poll] should alert those who regard Microsoft’s Internet domination as a foregone conclusion that they might want to rethink things.” Other browsers included mentioned in the survey include Safari (7.13% share), Chrome (0.83%), and Opera (0.71% share).

In other polling news, it seems as if Facebook Polls have been removed from the main site. The popular feature, which allowed users to create and monitor their own surveys, was turned into an “administator only” application sometime over the weekend. The overall controversy involving the move comes not from the decision itself, but how the decision was handled by the Facebook team. Instead of warning its user base of the change, the team decided to simply remove the evidence that the tool ever actually existed in the first place. While there is some talk about possibly reviving the service for normal users, a concrete time line has not been announced at this time. In the meantime, Facebook suggests for users to try one of a myriad of three-party polling applications for all of their surveying needs.

Elsewhere: Despite the “questionable at best” state of the world economy, the folks behind Wikipedia have successfully raised over six million dollars in order to keep its online encyclopedia running strong. Many place the credit solely on the shoulders of founder Jimmy Wales, whose impassioned Christmas plea for financial help reached nearly 50,000 concerned users. Wales, who has repeatedly scoffed at the idea of adding advertisements, looks at his organization as “an astoundingly effective charity with a tiny budget.” Thanks to the surge, Wikipedia has enough funds to operate at full capacity until the end of June.

And finally, noted writer Alexandria Brown has a thing or seven to say about how of online magazines, or “ezines” as they’re known, can help your business thrive. According to the so-called “Queen of the Ezines,” it all breaks down like this:

1. Ezines can easily turn into a profitible mailing list.
2. It’s an easy, cost-effective way to advertise your product or service.
3. Ezine exposure makes you seem like an expert in your particular field of expertise.
4. Ezines can build relationships with customers.
5. The little magazines can easily help create brand awareness.
6. Ezines are fantastic networking tools.
7. Ezines are insanely cheap to make.

While it isn’t exactly an ezine “how-to,” Ms. Brown’s comments are enough to get the creative juices flowing and bring the product into motion. And besides, turning inexpensive ideas into huge money making opportunities is what the Free Line is all about.

Welcome to the official, albeit a day or two late, 2008 wrap-up of the Free Line! In today’s very special episode, we take another look at five of our favorite products and services.

5) Page Weight Calculator

First Discussed: August 6th

What We Said Then: “If there’s one thing that can kill a promising website or e-business, it’s bulky, heavy code. Finding that one piece of unneeded code, however, can prove to be rather difficult. That’s where the Page Weight Calculator comes in. It seamlessly runs through your code, telling you exactly what is causing your code to be so heavy. Everything is scanned, from script headers to comments to excess white space. Think of as the ‘Richard Simmons‘ of the web… without the oldies, of course.”

What It’s Been Up To: Page Weight Calculator 0.98 was released in September. The new version features improved CSS compatibility, numerous performance tweaks, and better file compression.

4) ScummVM

First Discussed: May 21st

What We Said Then: “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.”

What It’s Been Up To: The team behind classic gaming’s favorite emulator “virtual machine” has been doing what they do best –making their creation run every sort of device possible. On the gaming end of things, the brain trust has recently announced that the CD-ROM classic The 7th Guest is now fully compatible.

3) Yahoo BOSS

First Discussed: July 16th

What We Said Then: “Yahoo has gone open source, in a way. The brain trust behind the second biggest search engine in the world announced the creation of BOSS, a service that will allow perspective search moguls to roll their own search engine. BOSS users will able to perform a wide range of functions, from re-ranking search results to removing all traces of the distinctive Yahoo logo. Yahoo will eventually allow BOSS users to advertise their specialized engines on the Yahoo site. At press time, Yahoo’s web, images, and news engines are available for tinkering, with video search coming soon.”

What It’s Been Up To: While it still has yet to fully live up to the pre-launch hype, BOSS has truly changed the way that some look at the search engine. It also helped to dispel the notion that Yahoo was an “old-fashioned” company rooted outdated technology. Some notable BOSS projects include SearchCloud and Inquisitor.

2) Qik

First Discussed: July 16th

What We Said Then: “Believe it or not, your cell phone can do more that take calls, send text messages, check emails, download music, and surf the web. It can now also record and stream video online. Qik is a handy little service that turns your average looking Windows or Symbian-based cell phone in miniature HandyCam. Just connect using your cell number and within seconds, you will be recording and streaming video for the world to see. The video output will then be available from either the Qik website or from previous Free Line all-star PicLens. A bit of warning though: Qik can eat up its fair share of bandwidth. So unless you subscribe to unlimited data plan, I’d think twice before starting production on the cell phone remake of Gone With the Wind.“

What It’s Been Up To: Qik is one of the fastest rising stars in the world of web 2.0.  Most notably, the service has been employed by cable network C-SPAN for their coverage of the Democratic and Republican Conventions. It has also been used as a part of a sit-in protest in the US House of Representatives. On the service front, the Qik team has recently announced support for the iPhone 3G, Blackberry devices, and a variety of import-only handsets.

1) Google Chrome

First Discussed: September 3rd

What We Said Then: “Google has officially joined the browser wars with Chrome. According to the official press release — a comic book — Chrome is designed to handle the rigors of web applications, not just websites. Google is also promising that Chrome will run in multiple processes, which in theory will eliminate things like Javascript hang-ups and browser freezes. The Windows version of Chrome is available now. Mac and Linux users can expect their own versions in a few weeks.”

What It’s Been Up To: Chrome is controversial, in a sense. While many within the industry feel that the browser is truly the “next big thing,” others say that it’s been nothing but empty promise after empty promise. It has also been reported that Gecko-related portions of Chrome have “unofficially” caused a rift between the Firefox development team and Mozilla. The official 1.0 release was launched in early December. The Mac and Linux versions have yet to materialize.

 The media tide is shifting yet again. According to a new poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, 35% say that they get their fill of national and international news from traditional print media, a 1% increase from 2007. By comparison, nearly 40% say that they get their news fix from the Internet – a 24% increase. While impressive, the number has yet to come close to traditional television broadcasts, which posted a 70% user rate.

In other polling news, comScore has released the list of the top social media sites of 2008, and the proverbial “king of the hill” is not what you think. According to the research firm, Blogger.com is number one, clocking over 222 million unique users worldwide in 2008. The presumptive number ones, Facebook and MySpace, comes in at numbers two and three, with 200 million and 126 million respective users. Other notables include WordPress (114 million), Windows Live Spaces (87 million), and Flickr (64 million).

Finishing up the “New Years poll trifecta,” both Quantcast and comScore have released the list of top ten Google products of 2008. Much to the surprise of no one, the base Google Search tops both lists. The lists do deviate past number one, however. Quantcast has Google Maps and Image Search coming in second and third, while comScore has the services reversed. Rounding out the top five are Gmail (fourth, both companies), Google Book Search (five, Quantcast; eight, comScore), and Google News (five, comScore; six, Quantcast).

Many fans of the Free Line might remember our report on Bubbles and Fluid, two programs that turn websites into free standing web applications. Well it seems as if the folks at Mozilla are joining the “impromptu web app” party well. Based upon an old Mozilla experiment called “Prism,” the as-yet-unnamed Firefox feature will allow users to convert a site to an application with a click of a button. The new app would then be treated as if it was a traditional software package installed from a disc. Some within the industry see the new feature as a way for Firefox to compete with not only Bubbles and Fluid, but with Chrome, which features a simplified version of the proposed service. The exact release date for the new feature is not known at this time.

Finally, Movable Type creator Six Apart has released the “laws” of social networking add-on Motion – six rules designed to make the new service work properly with the base program. “We believe that the right strategy for connecting your blog or site to the world of social networking is not to select one particular social network to hold all the cards, but to connect to all of the powerful and vibrant social networks across the web,” writes Six Apart associate Anil Dash. According to Dash, it all boils down to the six “Laws of Motion.”

1. The biggest social network out there is the Internet.
2. Mainstream media never changes.
3. Take stock in your present online community.
4. You, and only you, are in control of your personal social network.
5. A good community should lauch with at least a half a billion members attached.
6. “The web is in Motion.”

Follow these rules, he says, and the web is your proverbial oyster. “We can’t wait to see how the open web evolves, continue working to help it evolve faster, and we’re even more excited to see what our community does with these new abilities in the coming year.”

Social media is slowly sneaking into mainstream consciousness … at least in the United Kingdom. According to a new study conducted by pollster Hitwise, social sites such as MySpace and Facebook made up about 10.9% of all Internet traffic during Christmas week. YouTube also officially overtook Windows Live Mail/Hotmail in site hits for the first time. “The successes of Facebook and YouTube, along with similar sites, meant that social networks accounted for 1 in every 10 UK Internet visits during Christmas week,” says Hitwise Research Director Robin Goad. “Over the last 12 months traffic to the category has increased by 20%, and it now ranks behind only Entertainment, Search Engines and Shopping and Classifieds in terms of UK Internet visits.”

In other news, it seems as if phishers have started to exploit Google for “fun” and (mostly) profit. Scammers have been passing around an email claiming that the recipient has “won” an invitation to the new Google Calendar. All the user has to do is enter his or her user name and password. To heighten the farce, the user is then taken to the real Google Calendar site. As always, never trust a site or an email that asks for your login information.

And to finish up the year, we have something a bit odd. As many of you know, every episode of Doogie Howser, M.D. would end with Doogie (Neil Patrick Harris) typing a log entry into his then top-of-the-line IBM PS/2 computer. For those of you who wish to bring a little of that “80’s style” into the new millennium, there’s Twoogie. Twoogie combines all of the fun and frivolity of Twitter with the utter eyesore “retro cool” of late 80’s computing. While it doesn’t add any functionality to Twitter, Twoogie does make microblogging a bit more fun.

…And with that ends the first year of the Free Line. Be sure to come back tomorrow for our big, five-feature New Years report.

Another day, another abbriveated edition of the Free Line. The full, unfettered version that you have come to love will return soon.

The folks in control of Hulu, the online video site that allows average users to watch television programs for free, are mulling over a plan that would see the service tackle a worldwide audience. Currently, the Fox/NBC co-production is only available to users in the US. “The concept of Hulu is predicated on being a global business,” said Hulu CEO Jason Kilar in an interview with MediaPost. “Our mission statement describes us helping people to find and enjoy the world’s premium content wherever and however they want. That will be predicated on finding the right partners and having a business model that enables us to create value for advertisers, content partners and our shareholders.” There is currently no timetable as to when, or even if, the expansion will occur.

In other news, it seems as if the world of online auctions is about to join the world of microblogging. Called Tweebay, the new service allows users to use Twitter to bid, talk, and comment on various auction items. The only real problem many have with the service is the lack of comments. As many a veteran “eBay” hunter can tell you, the comments section is sometimes the only way one can diferenciate genuine sellers from scam artists. Tweebay is available now to all users.

And finally: Television host and Digg mastermind Kevin Rose has released his list of New Year’s resolutions, and the contents are interesting, to say the least. In amongst the personal (drink wine, learn yoga) and the quasi-professional (make an iPhone game), sits a note that has the Internet talking — build a better Digg. While no one is exactly sure what he is talking about, many within the industry believe that it is a continuation of the “beautify Digg” campaign that Rose has been spearheading for months. Rose, nor anyone else from Digg, has chosen to comment publicly at this time.

Welcome to today’s action-packed, if slightly abbreviated, edition of the Free Line. Despite the time of the year, the web doesn’t sleep and neither do we. We will be back to our old selves tomorrow. In the meantime…

The United States is the number one host of malware in the world, says security firm Sohpos. According to the findings, US-based computers and servers hold a surprising 37% of all malicious code and programs, up about 37% from the previous year. Many within the industry believe the number is due to both economic fears and the 2008 presidential election. Coming in behind the US are China (27.7%, down nearly 50% from the previous year), and Russia (9.1%).

Elsewhere, The folks at Google have officially beefed up its base image search engine. The big news this time around is the addition of choice.  Users can now easily narrow down their search to find clip art, pictures of people or animals, and hand-drawn sketches. The new options are accessible through a drop-down box found on the search results page. Google Image Search, complete with the new options, is available now for all users.

Finally: Cuil, the search engine designed to “beat Google at its own game,” might be down for the count. Although it debuted with considerable hype last July, Cuil has failed to keep the audience it had over the summer. Some analysts say that the failure is due to its indexing service, which has been described as everything from “poor” to “takes down sites.” With absolutely no sign of actually fixing their problems, Cuil seems to be destined for the “Road to Nowhere.”

Hello and welcome back to the Free Line. Due to the Christmas holiday, we believe that the last thing anyone wants to do is read up on hardcore, “serious” tech news. So with that in mind, we once again welcome our good friend, Browser Extension Friday. Our traditional format, featuring loads of that “web 2.0 news you can use,” will return on Monday. With that said, here we go:

Act One: Expand Your Mind - As many of you already know, today’s web browsers can do much more than just … well … browse the web. Here are five extensions and widgets designed to truly push what a web browser can do.

1. Presdo Event Calendar Organizer Doodad - For Firefox. Add a comprehensive “coming events” calendar to your browser. Many popular sites and social networks are supported, including MySpace, Gmail, and Ticketmaster.
2. Artist’s Sketchbook - For Opera. A handy little widget that allows you to edit pictures. While it isn’t exactly Photoshop, the Artist’s Sketchbook is more than suited for the occasional “touch up.”
3. Scientific Calculator - For Opera. A full calculator, complete with trigonometry functions, memory slots, and a random number generator.
4. iTunes Widget - For Opera. Add a little bit of iTunes functionality to everyone’s favorite Norwegian browser.
5. Tetris -For Opera. Because we all need a little “Tetris” in our lives every now and again.

Act Two: My Top Five - These are my top five favorite Firefox extensions that have yet to be covered on the Free Line. Be assured that I actually use all five of these attachments in my daily life.

1. Adblock Plus -Easily the best advertisement/image blocker out there today. A definite “must-have.” Adblocker Plus is also available for the somewhat obscure, Firefox-based, K-Meleon browser as well.
2. Download Statusbar - Moves the “download” list from a separate window to the bottom of the screen. Not only does it make downloads easier to track, it cuts down on desktop clutter as well.
3. Fancy Numbered Tabs - Adds — you guessed it — fancy, numbered tabs to Firefox. While it might seem a bit goofy, this extension can be very, very useful. The only real downside is that it stops counting at “eight.”
4. Locationbar² - Adds “links” to the address in the location bar.
5. TubeStop - Removes the “auto play” feature found on many online video sites. It will also disable many of the oddball “overlays” that tend to accompany YouTube videos.

The people of Japan are not exactly fond of Google Maps Street View. There is currently a petition making its way through twelve major cities asking Google to remove their roads from the database. According to the petition, which is backed by several high-ranking politicians and professors, the Street View photography team continually disregard their citizens’ right to privacy. The service then distributes the images “more easily, widely, massively and permanently than ordinary cameras and surveillance cameras do.” To many within the industry, the situation in Japan is eerily similar to what happened in Paris last May. In that case, many French citizens felt that the Google team broke actual privacy laws while preparing the service. Google has yet to respond to the outcry.

In other Google-related news, it seems as if a “unique view counter” has been added to YouTube. Previously, users and video “owners” had to rely solely on the page views to build their analytical data. While that information is indeed useful, it completely ignores the concept of “view padding” — multiple viewings performed by friends and family with the express purpose of driving up the view counter. Thanks to the new tool, amateur videographers can now see if they are true YouTube legends, or just legends in their own mind. To access the new feature, simply go the video’s Insights page, click on the ‘Views‘ menu tab, and select ‘Show Unique Users.’

In other news, the world of micropayments have officially come to Twitter, thanks to Twitpay. For those unaware, a micropayment is the act of giving an infinitesimal amount of money online to another user or site. The only real problem many within the industry have with the Twitpay is the service’s gaping lack of purpose. Traditionally, micropayments are used in massive online games such as Worlds of Warcraft and Second Life or as a blogger’s “virtual tip jar.” Twitter is not a game, nor is it something most logical people would find necessarily tip worthy. In time, the company hopes for its service to be used as an easy way to donate to charity, similar to the Salvation Army kettles during the holiday season. Whether or not this actually happens, however, remains to be seen. Twitpay is available now for all Twitter users.

Elsewhere, blogger Caroline Rodgers has written a highly informative piece detailing the ins and outs of video search engine optimization, or VSEO for short. “With the growth of video portals such as YouTube and multi-submission sites such as Tube Mogul, it has never been easier to get your videos on the web,” she writes. “So why should you try and go down the root [sic] of selling VSEO to your customers?” According to Ms. Rodgers, proper video optimization comes down to eight simple concepts:

1. Create an interesting file name
2. Use meta data to your advantage.
3. If possible, add a transcript to your video.
4. Make sure that your videos inevitably link back to your site.
5. Brevity is key.
6. “Brand” the video with your logo/site name.
7. Male sure that a few “important words” on your site links back to the video in question.
8. Enable ratings.

Easy to understand and even easier to implement, these tips are bound to help both VSEO and traditional SEO mavens of all levels and skill sets. She writes: “The first step is getting your client to see the value in undertaking VSEO. Using the information supplied in this [article], you should be able to present a fairly strong case to your client.”

Finally, we here at the Free Line would like to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. As overwhelming as both the Internet marketing scene and the world economy has been in 2008, there is one constant that we all can rely on — friends and family. Keep those important to you close this holiday season. We guarantee that you won’t regret it.

Google is once again the king of the search mountain. According to pollster comScore, the search engine giant and part-time verb laid claim to 63.5% market share in November, up .%4  from the previous month. While this number is indeed impressive, it should be noted that the share takes in account both the base engine and YouTube. Removing YouTube from the equation, Google’s share shrinks to a “mere” 46.5% — impressive, but nowhere near the original number. Other ranked engines include Yahoo (20.4%, down by .1%), Microsoft/Live Search (8.3%, down by .2%), and AOL (3.8%, up .1%).

Elsewhere,  Yahoo has officially invested in the India-based Info Network Management Company, or INMAC for short. For those who are not exactly up to seed with your Indian telecoms, INMAC is best known for its “Call Ezee” 411 directory service. The new partnership allows Yahoo to gain a foothold in India, a territory usually dominated by a combination of Google and various “regional” search concerns, without officially opening a regional office. The deal will also allow Yahoo to appoint at least one representative on the INMAC board of directors. This move comes just days after billionaire Mark Cuban suggested that Yahoo should build up their worth by purchasing stakes in smaller companies. Neither Cuban, INMAC, nor Yahoo have released a statement as of yet.

In other news, it seems as if the Google Docs Help Forums have received a much needed makeover. The new-look forums now feature a “question and answer” format similar to Yahoo Answers and the ability to subscribe to threads via email or RSS. A translation feature is also expected to make an appearance in the near future. “Your feedback proved invaluable when designing the new platform,” writes Stephen Drennen on the Official Google Docs Blog. “Thanks in advance for your patience as we work to build a community in the new Google Docs Help Forum.” The new and improved help space is up and running now.

Moving on, time sheets have gone social, thanks in part to TimeXchange. TimeXchange works on the principle that productivity comes when several people are all working together. Each user has a role, and with role comes certain administrative duties and responsibilities. As more users join the mass time sheet, more responsibilities can be doled out. The base file can also be saved in a variety of formats, including PDF and the default Quickbooks format. Simple to set up and operate, TimeXchange proves that even time sheets can be fun when infused with the power of web 2.0.

Finally, we have the Dataopedia, the newest project from Killerstartups.com. As the name implies, the Dataopedia allows users to research a vast variety of companies without ever having to leave the site. Aside from the basic “what and where,” the Dataopedia shows a complete picture of the firm in question, from page ranking to pertinent WHOIS information to an aray of multimedia and everything in between. Customized versions of the service are also available for mobile phones and Firefox users. Chock full of useful information, the Dealopedia is the perfect tool for anyone who needs the scoop on a company, and needs it in a hurry.

Earlier in the week, we reported that the biggest consumers of online video were those over the age of 35. It has now become apparent as to why this phenomenon occurs. According to Nielsen, 65% of those who participated in the first survey said they usually watch videos between nine in the morning and five in the afternoon, Monday through Friday — also known as the traditional American work week. Out of that number, roughly 34% said that they partake in video viewing during their lunch break, which is traditionally between noon and two. Other “prime YouTube times” include weekends from six in the morning to eight at night (51%) weekdays from five till eight at night (49%).

Elsewhere, Google has made it easier for users of all languages to share and compare vital website data. Using both Google Translate and the base search engine, the so-called “Cross-Language Enterprise Search” allows you to actively translate a variety of websites on demand. “Users can search in their native language, but find every document within the enterprise on the topic,” writes products manager Cyrus Mistry on the Official Google Enterprise Blog. “You can choose to have the results come back in any language and you can even translate the search result snippets (or documents themselves) into any language.” The Cross-Language Enterprise Search is available now to all users.

In Wikipedia news, the encyclopedia known for its user-generated content and gaping factual errors has finally come to the world of mobile phones. As expected, the mobile site offers everything its bigger brother does, only in an easier to manage form. In this case, “easier to manage” means that all pictures, bounding boxes, and colorful links have to sit this one out. In their place sits the mysterious “Spoken Wikipedia,” a as-of-yet inactive feature that already has a few tech bloggers buzzing. Mobile Wikipedia, minus the “Spoken Wikipedia,” is available now for everyone.

Next up on our nonstop cavalcade of free, we have Tweetag. Like the “official” Twitter Search, Tweetag lets you to search for certain words and topics on everybody’s favorite microblogging service. Unlike the name brand equivalent, however, you have the added option of picking your words from the tag cloud. As with all clouds of this nature, the more “popular” the topic, the bigger the physical word. Because of this, working with Tweetag feels more like a liesurely browse than endless searching. Interesting and engaging, Tweetag makes “microblogging from a cloud” such an easy thing to do.

…And to finish off the week, we have the triumphant return of Browser Extension Friday. In today’s actioned packed feature, we’re going to take a look at six scripts designed to improve your overall web experience.

Before We Begin: Before you can try out any of these scripts, you’re probably going to need a small extension. To that end, we have…

Firefox - Greasemonkey. There are also official versions of Greasemonkey available for Firefox-derivatives Flock and Epiphany, and “unofficial” versions for SeaMonkey and musical database Songbird.

Internet Explorer - Greasemonkey for IE. Former Free Line favorite IE7Pro also supports scripting.

Safari - While Safari has a built-in Applescript support, a browser extension is needed for the scripts we will be investigating today. For that, check out GreaseKit.

Konqueror - Konqueror Userscript.

Additionally, both Opera and Chrome have built-in support for most of these scripts.

With that said, here we go:

• Google Account Multi-Login - Easily access all of your Gmail accounts without signing out.
• MySpace Home Auto-Update - Enable an auto-update feature on the MySpace main page.
• _blank Must Die - Stop websites from opening up “dummy” tabs and web instances.
• LookItUp2 - Look up any word on either Wikipedia or a dictionary.
• Ad Slicer for MySpace - Remove the ads (and the ad spaces) that inhabit MySpace.
• YouTube Googler - Give YouTube a distinct “Google Video” makeover.