If there is one thing that everyone knows about, it’s advertising. No matter where we look, there always seems to be a thirty-second television spot, billboard, or conveniently placed Coke can within eye shot. While that sort of bombardment does have the tendancy to be annoying at points, it could always be worse. We could be living in the media obsessed dystopia of Max Headroom. In the series, advertising is present in three unique, highly diverse ways. On today’s installment of Twenty Minutes into the Future, we will take a look at three techniques and discuss how each are being used in today’s culture.

Technique #1: The Cheviot Method

Championed By: Ben Cheviot (George Coe), founder and president of Network 23.
Thesis: People first, ads second.
Explanation: According to the “Cheviot Method” of advertising, it is imperative to remember that it isn’t robots and/or lemmings watching these ads. It’s people. If “advertiser A” uses their predetermined ad time to insult the viewer, or if they try to do to much, the viewer is less likely to return. If such behavior keeps up over time, the viewer will simply “give up” and simply stop caring about your product or service. By treating people like people, not only do you get the viewer to care about the product, you make hem more willing to investigate other products or services that have your name on it.
In-Show Result: Network 23 is consistently number one in the ratings.
Real-World Example: Anyone who tows the Free Line concept practices this advertising method.

Technique #2: The Grossberg Method

Championed By: Ned Grossberg (the late Charles Rocket), the president of Network 66 and Cheviot’s mortal enemy.
Thesis: People exists to buy things, so they might as well be buying those things from us.
Explanation: When this particular advertising method is employed, the consumer essentially becomes secondary to the items that are being shown on the screen. Although the company involved might see a initial spike in “audience participation,” the numbers will actually be lower overall. To compensate for this, the advertiser/network is forced to employ a variety of gimmicks in order to coerce people into coming back for more. In the show, these gimmicks ranged from ridiculous (”Watch 66 in your sleep! You can do that now!”) to horrifying (one second long “blipverts” that had a nasty habit of making fat people explode) to the downright bizarre (a reality show about the life and times of super genius infants).
In-Show Result: Grossberg is made to look like a fool on a fairly regular basis; network ratings go down sharply.
Real-World Example: Any company labeled as an “evil corporation” has been accused of using this advertising method at least once in their existence.

Technique #3: The Zik Zak Method

Championed By: A fairly mysterious, multi-national corporation called “Zik Zak.” While it is implied that Zik Zak makes everything from furniture to prescription drugs, the company’s main products are soft drinks and fast food.
Thesis: People?! Who cares about people! Buy our stuff and quit complaining!
Explanation: People who employ this kind of advertising structure simply do not care about anyone or anything other than their product. It really doesn’t matter if people get “inconvenienced” or even find themselves in a sticky situation. They still bought the product. The “in-world” example of this tactic is the NeuralStim, a “free bracelet” that caused people to crave cheeseburgers. In the case of our hero, Edison Carter, the bracelet made him nearly die from overspending.
In-Show Result: The “faulty” bracelets cause Zik Zak to nearly go bankrupt.
Real-World Example: In a fictional TV show, it’s called a “NeuralStim.” In the real word, it’s called “malware.”
Special Note: During my research, I ran across three very different organizations that call themselves “Zik Zak.” Please keep in mind that the comments above only apply to the fictional corporation, not to the these real-life entities.

Our Advice: The “Cheviot Method” is the only way to go. As I said a few days ago. These are your people. Never forget that. Your customers (and everyone else, for that matter) will thank you in the long run.

Anyone who lived through the late 1980’s ought to remember Max Headroom, the hyperactive, pseudo-CGI “head in the box” portrayed by actor Matt Frewer. The Max Headroom character was everywhere in those days, from music videos to ads for Coca-Cola and seemingly everything in between. What many people don’t remember, however, is the science fiction program that bared the character’s name. This was not the lovable, wacky Max that called Cinemax and England’s Channel 4 home. This Max exists in a world where the major television networks are in charge. Because of this, such every day items as the off switch and the mute button are deemed to be illegal. Televisions are everywhere, including bathrooms and junk yards. Simply put, no one could ever escape the grip of the mass media, and the people like it that way.

Working within the confines of this odd, “Network-meets-The Matrix” world is Edison Carter (also portrayed by Matt Frewer), ace reporter for the highly-rated Network 23 and the “basis” for Max Headroom. It is his mission to bring his viewers the truth, no matter the situation. In the show’s fourteen episodes, Emerson and company does everything from thwart a sentient supercomputer to blowing the lid off of a dangerous subliminal advertising scheme run by Bill Maher, using nothing more than quick thinking and a heaping helping of brutal honesty. The viewer, both physically in the show and otherwise, are constantly reminded that the world is a better place thanks to people like Emerson Carter and his “computerized” alter ego. As long as there are people fighting for the truth, there really is nothing to worry about.

In many ways, we are approaching this basic existence, only with a different concept serving as our vice. Instead of thriving on a flashing picture, we are addicted to information. I don’t just mean the “TMZ/Perez Hilton” style celebrity gossip columns. I mean anything. Pick your topic — President Obama, professional wrestling, U2 — and I bet there is someone, somewhere talking, tweeting, or blogging about it at this very moment. We need to know about what is going on, and we need to know it now. Take the recent “best of seven” series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Orlando Magic for example. Five years ago, we would have had to wait two to three days to hear former Laker Shaquille O’Neal talk about his former team. Thanks to Twitter, we heard it minutes after the Lakers cliched the NBA title. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that this kind of “instant feedback” can become addictive.

Now despite what some might be thinking, things really aren’t all that dire. Our world isn’t based upon the idea of two-way television sets or networks that can make commercials so compact that they make people’s heads literally explode. We’re simply talking about the delivery of information, not a re-creation of 1984. It’s human nature to want to know what is going on around us. Exploiting that desire, on the other hand, is something else entirely. It all comes down to priorities. Those who put more effort into their advertising than their content are more likely to alienate their audiences than the people who put their “product” front and center. By ignoring the very thing that got you into this very situation to begin with, the writer/blogger/YouTube “star” is actually sending a message that your fan base’s mouse click means more than their physical presence. Who cares if the content is good nor not? You clicked the link. It’s your loss.

While it might seem like a good idea now, turning your audience into a group of mind-numbed automatons randomly clicking things will not help you become a success in the long run. The trick, if you want to call it that, is to adopt what I like to call the “Edison Carter” approach to content creation and maintenance. It all breaks down to three basic principles:

1. Your users are more than just a group of random mice clicking a white box. They’re people. Your people. Always keep that in mind when developing your content.
2. Stay genuine to your cause.
3. Stay open to the needs and concerns of your user base.

Do this, and the world just might become a better place. If you don’t, well … let’s just say living in an “off switch-free world” is not anyone’s idea of a good time. Be sure to come back tomorrow for part two of our three part series. Until then, this is Brad Fallon signing off for Network 23 the Free Line.

What do cherries, Microsoft, and the Irving Berlin classic “White Christmas” all have in common? Despite what you might be thinking right now, the answer is not ice cream sundaes, anti-trust suits, or Danny Kaye. It’s Bing. For those unaware, Bing is Microsoft’s new “do it all” search portal that will supposedly change the way we look at search portals. Does it live up to the hype? We are about to find that out.

First Impression: “Why does the welcome picture have little ‘hot spots’ in it?”

Search (Term: “Open Source Browsers”)

Number of Hits
Bing: 57.2 million hits
Google: 62.6 million hits
Yahoo: 35.8 million hits

Search Quality
Bing: Although devoid of both repeating links and blatant advertising, Bing seems to be focused on one thing and one thing only: Chrome. Out of the ten links on the first page, four deal with Google’s controversial browser. Mozilla and Firefox, meanwhile, are left out in the proverbial cold.
Google: Google results seem to be a bit more diverse than that of Bing. Chrome, for example, only appears once, while Mozilla makes its presence felt twice.
Yahoo: Yahoo’s results are a tad more redundant than both Bing and Google, but it’s not anything to really write home about. Mozilla appears only once, while Chrome isn’t mentioned at all.

Video Search (Term: “Photoshop Tutorials”)

Number of Hits
Bing: 34,700
Google (YouTube): 73,600
Yahoo: 6,215

Search Quality
Bing: Every video on the first page actually corresponded with the keywords in question. While the difficulty and intended audience might differ from one clip to another, the overall theme remains steady.
Google (YouTube): Same as Bing, only with less links.
Yahoo: A few of the links seem to go a bit off-topic, but most stay on-point.

Bing On…
News: When you first arrive, you will notice a few videos sitting at the bottom of the screen. Those videos can be turned on by either clicking the link (as per tradition) or running your mouse over the “play” button. While it isn’t suited for watching whole stories, the Bing News mouse over feature makes grabbing a “sneak preview” as painless as possible.
Maps: For the life of us, we just could not get the map feature running properly. Instead of getting a map full of roads, rivers, and landmarks, we received a desolate beige blob full of orange arrows. After a little while, we were able to turn the beige blob in a grid similar to the one found in the science fiction film Tron. The actual turn-by-turn directions, however, are a completely different story. Every set we tried were incredibly detailed and extremely easy to read. We especially appreciate the “if you see ___, then you’ve gone too far” note that appeared at the end of every page. It makes exploring new places a bit less taxing.

Final Thought: While it isn’t exactly perfect, it’s much better than we expected. Microsoft supposedly put a ton of time and effort into this project, and it shows. Yes, it’s still “rough around the edges,” but it isn’t just a rebranded “Live Search” either. In short, Bing just might be the “web portal powerhouse” Redmond has always wanted. Whether it actually lives up to hype, however, remains to be seen.

It doesn’t always take a clairvoyant, an oddball social media site, or even Dionne Warwick to be able to predict the future. Sometimes, it just takes a bit of knowledge and an eye for trends. On today’s Free Line, we take a look into two upcoming standards that are about to become mainstream.
Web 3.0

What is it?: According to the experts, Web 3.0 is simply another way of making the Internet a bit more intelligent. Perhaps the best known feature of this “emerging technology” are so-called “real speech” algorithms, which attempt to bring natural speech patterns and sentence structure to a browser near you. Let’s say that you want to look for the first post of The Great Linux Experiment. In today’s search engines, you would put together a string of relevant keywords, such as “Free Line Linux Experiment.” Now if web 3.0 was implemented, you would simply type in the full thought. Web 3.0 will also be able to analyze your movements throughout the web and “suggest” sites and features that you might find interesting.

So when we will see it?: No one is exactly sure when web 3.0 will go mainstream. At this point in time, it’s mainly for programmers and professionals.

Oh … But I want it now!: Just hold your horses there. While there isn’t any “official” apps yet, there are several services available that attempt to mimic web 3.0 — StumbleUpon, Hooeey, and even Ask.com immediately come to mind. The sadly defunct Netscape web browser also got into the act with their patented “smart browsing” technology. A similar add-on is currently available for Firefox under the name of Fuzzbot.

WiMax

What is it?: To many, WiMax is considered to be the proverbial “next step” in wireless Internet service. While it does share more of a passing resemblance to WiFi, WiMax is a completely different animal. Instead of manipulating an existing Internet connection like WiFi does, WiMax provides users with a clean broadband hookup without the middle man. In this sense, it has more in common with most fiber optic (DSL) and cable-based subscription services than it does with that Linksys router that’s sitting besides you. WiMax is currently being looked at as a viable alternative for those in rural areas who are unable to get a traditional broadband connection, and for local politicians who don’t want to put billions into a city-wide WiFi network. WiMax is also considered to be the heir apparent to those internal WiFi modules found in everything from phones to video game systems to music players.

So when will we see it?: It’s available now, but you have to look for it. Several countries from all over the world have at least some WiMax up and functional, including Australia, France, and even Iran.

That’s great, but I live in the US. What are my options?: It all depends on what part of the country you live in. According to Wikipedia, most of the WiMax activity is concentrated to either major urban centers such as Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York City, or comparatively rural areas such as Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska. Expect the range to grow as the service become more mainstream. In Canada, WiMax service is being brought the masses primarily by Toronto-based telecommunications juggernaut Rogers Communications.

In the past year, we here at the Free Line have seen Twitter used in a variety of unique and creative ways. With all due respect to the likes of Chris Bosh and Mark Cuban, no one has utilized the “in the moment” power of Twitter quite like the college students of Moldova. Bosh solicits travel directions and restaurant suggestions from his fans. Cuban angers the NBA on a fairly regular basis with his highly opinionated ramblings. The Moldovians, on the other hand … they use the service to help spark a revolution. Displeased with the underhanded and borderline illegal tactics employed by the country’s communist government, the students started a pro-freedom rally on the steps of the parliament building in Chisinau. The protesters have been using the microblogging service to not only give up-to-the-minute reports on the situation, but encourage others to join their cause. Thanks to the Tweets (and an odd YouTube video here and there), the students’ nonviolent protest has quickly turned into a full-on revolution. Like in many communist countries, access to ideas that fall outside of the “party line” is almost nonexistent for most Moldovians. By using services like Twitter to spread their message, dissenters can make sure their voices are truly heard.

In other news, next major evolution in websites could potentially cause some major headaches for professionals worldwide. As many of you now know, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — ICANN for short — has relaxed the rules concerning top-level domain names. Instead of being limited to the traditional .com, .net, and .org, consumers can now pick the domain name that fits him or her best. A wrestling promoter, for example, could use .suplex for their site instead of settling for comparatively boring suffixes like “.tv” or “.info.” This is where the problem comes in. Many major businesses, organizations, and services buy similar-sounding TLDs in order to prevent others from encroaching on their territories. When a business owner doesn’t take that level of care, bad things tend to happen. (The Whitehouse.gov/.com debacle of a few years ago comes to mind.) By adding a near unlimited amount of TLDs, site owners find themselves having to buy ten or twenty new names instead of just four or five. Added to that is the fact that in order to buy the domain suffix outright, the purchaser has to put at least $185,000 down and offer up another $25,000 a year formaintenence. ICANN feels that the new domains could lead to “one of the largest marketing and branding opportunities in history.” Others, such as Verizon vice president Sarah Deutsch, don’t have such a rosey view on things. “It costs companies hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, to enforce their trademark rights in the existing space, so imagine how expensive it will be when Verizon gets infringed in a thousand new domains,” Deutsch told USA Today. As far as she is concerned, the new TLDs are nothing more than a “form of extorsion.” As always with stories such as this, we’ll keep you updated with latest information as it comes available.

And finally: With what must seem like a trend, the mighty Google is once again on top of the search engine heap. Roughly 72.34% of all search traffic traveled through Google last March, an 8% increase over the previous year. The once — and if current trends indicate anything, future — runner up is Yahoo, which clocked in with a 16.36% market share, a 19% decrease compared to this time last year. Rounding out the top four are MSN Search (5.5% share; a 17% decrease) and Ask.com (4.07% share; a 1% decrease overall).

Sometimes it pays to be original when it comes to creating new content. The treasure trove of unique, different and, in some cases, just plain weird ideas can mean more to a prospective user than the billions of Twiiter clones ever could. On today’s episode of the Free Line, we take a look at three projects that take “thinking differently” to an entirely new level.

SWiK - In the minds of many, “open source” software is a rather difficult field to grasp. To the uninitiated, the stories and write ups could seem as if they were written in a foreign language. Sure, “they” might know what “sudo root” means, but you sure don’t. Luckily for us, there’s SWiK. SWiK is a combination wiki and search engine that is designed to make the world of open computing seem a bit more accessible to the average user. The site features extremely detailed, well-written selections on a variety of common programs and concepts, from Linux and Konqueror to GNU and Richard Stallman. Easy enough for a beginner to use but powerful enough for the seasoned veteran, SWiK is the perfect place to start your journey into the world of free software.

OldVersion.com – Despite the old adage, change isn’t always good. The new software in question might not be working properly on your computer. The programmers might have felt the need to take away your favorite feature option or feature. It just might even not work at all, period. It’s times like this that you wish you can go back to the way things used to be. Now you can, thanks to the folks at OldVersion.com. As the name implies, OldVersion.com is dedicated to the preservation of the freeware programs of yesteryear. Want the original Napster software from the year 2000? They have it. Are you hankering for a copy of Internet Explorer 2 that was written especially for Windows 3.11? They have that too. While many of these programs are pretty much non-functional, they are still fun to check out from time to time. All in all, OldVersion.com is great for anyone who is feeling a bit nostalgic, “saddled” with an older system that is physically unable to run many of today’s applications, or just feels like taking part in an interactive history lesson.

Married By MySpace – In the annals of time, people have taken apart in some strange weddings. There are some who have had their ceremonies held at a midnight showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Others choose to tie the knot while riding their favorite roller coaster. Still others, like legendary Canadian wrestling champion Paul LeDuc, feel it’s best for it all to happen inside the ring. Now its time to add MySpace to that list. In “Married By MySpace,” the new project/reality television show from Fox Media, Disney, and wedding site The Knot, the happy couple agrees to hand their plans over to users of the social network. Everything — the ceremony, the reception, even what the bridal party will wear — will be carefully planned by the MySpace faithful. While it might not be a “classic” wedding, it is something that will be remembered.

Due to the series of unforeseen circumstances, we’re cutting the proceedings a bit short today. Things will be back to normal tomorrow. In the mean time:

Should employees be punished for openly criticizing their employers on social networking sites? That is the question of the day … in Philadelphia, at least. Last week, the Phildelphia Eagles football franchise fired seasonal worker Dan Leone after team officials discovered that he was complaining about the team on his Facebook page. In the now-infamous post, Leone — a game-day security guard — said that letting star safety Brian Dawkins test the free agent market was downright “retarded.” The team maintains that decision to fire Leone was due to the “mildly inappropriate language” he used in the post, not because of the post itself. Needless to say, not everyone agrees with the decision. “The person who fired [Leone] should go,” says sports writer and ESPN personality Michael Wilbon. “It’s Facebook… It’s about as harmless as [lifestyle magazine] Redbook. You don’t fire some guy who guards a gate for putting something on Facebook.” Wilbon’s on-air partner Tony Kornheiser, on the other hand, supports the so-called “drastic measures” taken by the team. According to Kornheiser, Leone essentially criticized his employer in a public, albeit fairly obscure, forum. As such, the Eagles should be able to take whatever action they deem to be appropriate. The Eagles have yet to officially respond to the controversy.

In other news, not every major broadcaster looks down upon BitTorrent. Norwegian public broadcasting corporation NRK has launched their own tracking protocol, making it easy for users to download and share official, DRM-free content with ease. While the idea of opening up content might be new for many, it’s old hat for the folks in Norway. In the past two years, Norwegian officials have done everything from sue Apple for “forcing” users to purchase DRM-laden iTunes files to release specialized podcasts the feature the complete Beatles library, all in the name of data openness. The high-quality programming from the NRK archives are available now to all users, provided that they are fluent in Norwegian, of course.

And finally: Finding a little bit of extra money for your dream project has just become a bit easier. Angelsoft, an organization that prides itself on bringing venture capitalists and the folks who could really, really use their money closer together, has officially entered the search engine business. The new engine is “pre loaded” with over a thousand active venture capitalist firms and organizations, complete with funding preferences and contact information. You can also narrow down the results by category, average response time, and more. Simple to navigate and use, the new Angelsoft search engine takes the pain out of finding interested investors.

The Authors Guild is still having problems with the Kindle’s new text-to-voice feature. As you may remember, Guild Executive Director Paul Aiken has recently questioned the legality of the feature, saying that it effectively lets a user “steal” an audio book. In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, Guild President Roy Blount, Jr. says that he supports Aiken’s view on the matter, claiming the situation is bigger than most people realize. “[P]eople who want to keep on doing creative things for a living must be duly vigilant about any new means of transmitting their work,” writes Blount. “What the guild is asserting is that authors have a right to a fair share of the value that audio adds to Kindle 2’s version of books.” Blount is quick to point out, however, that the Kindle complaints have nothing to do with non-commercial “live readings” and text-to-speech services for the blind. “For the record: no, the Authors Guild does not expect royalties from anybody doing non-commercial performances of ‘Goodnight Moon.’ If parents want to send their children off to bed with the voice of Kindle 2, however, it’s another matter.”

In other news, Microsoft has announced that it will be rolling out yet another “experimental” search engine in the next few weeks. Seen by many as the successor to URank, the new Viveri system will once again use cutting edge ideas to get the best results possible. Unlike URank, which relied on a variety of social media tricks to attract users, Viveri is focused on how the information is delivered. The engine is built upon Silverlight, Microsoft’s new Flash competitor. Once a search is performed, two columns appear — one with the traditional results, and one with small “previews” of the sites in question. Microsoft hopes to have Viveri up and running by the summer.

Elsewhere, Intel seems to be taking an interest in Facebook. The processor giant has announced that they will be sponsoring a handful of projects in the Developer’s Garage, the “beta center” of the Facebook universe. The deal is just the latest chapter in the Facebook/Intel mutual admiration society. A few months back, the Facebook team announced that they plan on adding a fleet of brand-new Intel servers to their operations. Intel responded by creating a specialized Facebook app that allows employees to give gifts to one an other. The first meeting of the new, Intel-friendly Developer’s Garage will meet March 5th in Ireland.

Moving to the realm of microblogging for a moment, we have Ginx. Ginx is designed to be the “Sunday morning talk show” of the Twitter world, with facts, opinion, and spin flying around with reckless abandon. Each Ginx topic (or “room,” if you will) features a panel of experts that live and breathe the topic at hand. When the user decides to join the group, they immediately gain access to every post those experts have ever written, no matter if it’s on-topic or not. The logic behind this is that it allows the user to view the panel as real people, rather than as a group of one-dimensional know-it-alls. There are currently eleven topics available, ranging from topical (China) to specialized (the state politics of Arizona) to the just plain weird (fly-fishing). Interesting to use and fun to read, Ginx is perfect for all of those who feel that the news of the day can be boiled down to 140 characters. Ginx is available now for those lucky enough to have Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket an invitation code.

And finally: We here at the Free Line present you with the enigma that is Google Shared Stuff. It’s a Google service, but no one has actually heard of it. It’s been open to the public since September 2007, yet it barely registers in search results. When it came time to close the little service, no one mourned the loss … mainly because no one has heard of it. But thanks to our research staff, we have solved the mystery of the lost service. Shared Stuff was designed to be Google’s answer to Delicious — a place where you could share links, pictures, and even YouTube videos. Unfortunately, it was never “officially” launched thanks to a lack of focus, a few ill-timed security flaws, and the dreaded “experimental” tag. It had a few die-hard fans, but other than that, it never really “went” anywhere. Even the usually ignored Google Lively had more of an impact. At press time, Shared Stuff will be completely deactivated March 21st.

Due to a series of unforeseen circumstances, today’s action packed edition of the Free Line will be slightly abbreviated. Rest assured, everything will be right and normal tomorrow. With that said, here we go:

Another day, another horrible virus warning. Yesterday, it was a malware suite that disguises itself as a anti-virus program. Today, it’s Facebook. The “fun” begins the second you log into the service. You are first greeted with an “urgent message” that claims that several of your friends were unable to view your page. To correct the problem, the warning says, all you have to do is install a handy new app called “Error Check System.” When the app is installed, it immediately sends itself to all of your friends. Unlike most pieces of junk, this virus has a backup system. A quick search for “Check Error System” on Google will net you a site that supposedly warns you about the Facebook threat. When clicked, the site brings up a fake virus scan, which attempts to toss two Trojans onto your system. As always, watch what you load and take the proper precautions.

In other news, Microsoft has unveiled the Social Desktop, a system the company hopes will blur the line between the traditional user desktop and the Internet at large. The way that Redmond plans to do this lies within bowels of desktop-based file folders. Normally, these folders can only be shared through a private network or other similar setup. Social Desktop takes away that limitation by assigning each folder its own unique web address. The result is a system that’s closer to a web OS such as Eye OS than Windows Vista. Despite its early promise, it might be awhile before we see the feature on a system near you. According to Microsoft, the Social Desktop is merely a “proof of concept” at this point.

And finally: There’s a new search engine in town, and it’s coming from an unlikely source — The New York Times. Called the NYT Explorer, the new engine only does one thing (that is, search the New York Times), but it does it extraordinarily well. Articles can be searched by keyword, subject, date published, author, and even location. Each search is performed extremely fast and, at least judging by our tests, are extremely accurate. Easy to use and operate, NYT Explorer proves that even the oldest of the “old guard” can embrace change.

The government of New Zealand has declared war on piracy. Due to a recent amendment to the 25 year old Copyright Act, ISPs are ordered to disconnect users who are suspected of pirating digital media. Like the previously mentioned French proposal, the new law works on a “three-strike” system, with disconnection being the ultimate penalty. While the New Zealand music industry supports the new law, most other major organizations, including hospitals and libraries, do not. Leading the charge are the ISPs themselves, which are still open to lawsuits from users who feel that they were improperly cut off from their service. The new amendment is to take effect March 1st.

In other legal matters, the Italian government has charged four Google executives with defamation and privacy violations, both felony-grade offenses. The lawsuit stems from a YouTube video in which four Italian teenagers tease a boy afflicted with Downs Syndrome. While Google did remove the video shortly after it was posted, many felt that the company waited too long before taking action. According to prosecutors, Google indirectly helped the teenagers abuse the boy by not pulling the video before it hit the website. It should be noted that the four executives in question — Senior Vice President David Drummond, privacy council head Peter Fleischer, former CFO George Reyes, and an as-yet unknown employee from Google Video’s London branch, respectively — are said to have had no direct contact with the video while it was being uploaded. If convicted, the four men will face an undetermined amount of jail time. Google has stood firm in support of its employees, stating that the Italian government’s position is “totally wrong” and “akin to prosecuting mail service employees for hate speech letters sent in the post.” We will report more on this developing story as it develops.

In less disturbing, news, Yahoo has begun to remove all advertisements from its RSS feeds. Sources at Yahoo say the shutdown was necessary in order for the company to focus on other, decidedly more popular, products. First launched in November 2005, the RSS-centric contextual ads were designed to compete with such revenue-sharing counterparts as Feedvertising and the Google-based FeedBurner. Feeds in Ads was officially shut down February 2nd.

Elsewhere: A few months ago, search engine underdog Ask.com announced that they would be partnering with security firm Symantic on ways to protect users from the nasties that live online. The first product to come out of said partnership is Safe Search, a realtime scanner that shows the “threat level” of each site listed. Many within the industry believe both the partnership and Safe Search program could bring some serious attention to Ask, which, has struggled as of late to stay relevant. Those who wish to try Safe Search but are unwilling to give up their search engine of choice can load the beta for free from the Symantic website.

Finally: Every now and again, we’ll run across something that just needs to be saved. For pictures, there’s our good ol’ friend “right click.” Users wishing to procure audio and video have a variety of tools and tricks at their beckons call. Those who wish to save pieces of text without resorting to a word processing program, however, have been left out in the cold. CinaNotes is out to change all of that, however. Instead of going to an “invisible” clipboard, the desired text is sent to its own program, where it is labeled with the date, subject, and program. Users can then label, categorize, and even search their collection of text, all without opening a single word processing document. Easy to install and operate, CinaNotes makes saving text as easy as clicking the right mouse button. CinaNotes is available now for all users.