On the July 8th edition of the Free Line, we reported that media giant Viacom was forcing Google to hand over the personal records associated with YouTube users. Tech blog Gizmodo is now reporting that this might not be the case after all. While Viacom is still set to receive the information from Google, all personal information will be replaced with a so called “arbitrary identifier.” This latest change came about after privacy groups protested the move. Neither Google nor Viacom have any comment concerning this latest development.

Around the world, widespread disease is still a serious problem. Keeping track of the diseases used to be a painstaking and not too reliable proposition. Thankfully, that is about to change. Healthmap is a project in which top researchers use Google Maps to keep tabs on the various viral nasties that populate the planet. According to their website, their ultimate goal is to provide a “unified and comprehensive view of the current global state of infectious diseases and their effect on human and animal health.” On behalf of the Free Line, I wish you nothing but good luck on behalf of your cause.

To some of us, text messaging is a necessary evil. For those of you who feel that texting is a gigantic waste of time but still have a need to use the service, there’s GizmoSMS. Unlike most texting services, Gizmo is based from a website. Not only can you avoid the normal texting fees that come with sending a message, you can use your keyboard to write full sentences. Ah… the simple joys of the properly punctuated sentence. As always, Gizmo SMS is a free service.

There are many of us who believe that a cell phone is not a proper replacement for a regular digital camera. Sadly this is not true, as most phone are obscenely underpowered when compared to nicer cameras on the market. Still, that doesn’t mean that your pictures automatically have to look bad. Download the Mobile Photo Enhancer and clean those pictures up. The Mobile Photo Enhancer removes noise, JPEG compression artifacts, and more from cell phone imagery. What you’re left with is nicest looking picture possible. Even cell phones can capture the beauty of the world around us. They just need a little help in the clutch.

Despite what Huey Lewis might have told you, it’s not hip to be square, especially when it comes to CSS bounding boxes. RoundedCornr delivers what it promises - nice rounded edges for all. Just choose your colors and your height and off you go. It’s not flashy, but it’s functional. And sometimes, functional is all you need.

在前几期当中，我们报道了媒体老大Viacom正要求Google把其所有跟YouTube有关的用户信息都转交给它。科技博客Gizmodo现在又报道说实际情况可能有所改变了。尽管Viacom没有放弃从Google索取信息的念头，但现在“个人信息”的字眼被换成了“任意识别”。Google和Viacom目前都还没有对媒体有任何评论。

眼观世界， 传染病仍然是个很棘手的问题。而要想准确的跟踪疾病传播的方向更是难上加难。不过也许将来不是问题了。`科学家们最近利用Google Map建立了一个用于标记病毒聚集地的项目，叫做Healthmap`。根据项目的网站，他们的最终目标是能提供一个“全面统一的全球传染病状态及其对人和动物影响的版图”。在这里代表免费帮，我们祝他们好运！

对有些人来说，短信就是他们的生命。·而现在你可以通过GizmoSMS免费发短信了！不像其它的短信服务，Gizmo的服务是基于网站的·。你不仅可以省掉正常的短信费，还可以用键盘打出完整的句子了。呃……最起码也能省省你的手机键盘。当然了，GizmoSMS是一个免费的服务。

说到移动电话，许多人都相信手机的照相功能可以成为真正数码照相机的替代品。然而事实上，跟市场上真正的相机比起来手机往往相形见拙。不过，这并不意味着你的相片就一定会很差。下载一个Mobile Photo Enhancer问题就全解决了。`你可以用它对手机照片进行降噪，提升压缩品质和其它改善处理`。之后你将会得到一张全新的图片。现在手机也可以为我们拍出美丽的照片了。你只是需要点帮助而已。

不论Huey Lewis告诉过你什么，方形的东西永远不酷，尤其是CSS表格的边框处理。`RoundedCornr能很一改你网站的方形嘴脸，提供给你完美的圆形边框。你只要选择颜色和大小就可以了`。它不漂亮，但却很实用。有些时候，我们要的就是实用。

Last week we told you about LibraryThing, the social web site that allows you to catalog your books online and discuss them, all for free. LibraryThing’s biggest competition, Shelfari, has just received a new make over that they hope will keep users coming back. Some of the latest features include a more powerful search engine and “My Shelfari,” a tool that keeps track of everything from your personal information to your friends. One of the biggest changes is the new Authors Unbound section, where fans can edit information on their favorite authors, wiki-style. If you’re a fan of literature, then Shelfari is definitely the place for you.

Sometimes in business, it’s imperative to know where your company’s website stands against the competition. Sure ,you might think you’re pretty popular the world over, but perception and reality are often two different things. Thankfully, Google has you covered with Google Trends new site comparison feature. When we compared LibraryThing and Shelfari, for example, we found that while LibraryThing is more popular in the US, Shelfari holds the edge in India. Both easy to follow and powerful to use, Google Trends will have you comparing your sites with each other in no time flat.

Nowadays, statistics are getting harder and harder to verify. Take Avril Lavigne’s video for her song “Girlfriend” on YouTube, for example. On the surface, it seems as if video has 90,388,110 views. Look a little closer, however, and things get a bit more “sinister.” The number isn’t real. A bunch of net savvy fans are using a web bot to go and view the page once every five minutes, racking up the hits without YouTube even noticing. Their ultimate goal was to make Avril the number one most viewed video on YouTube. The kicker? They succeeded. As of this writing, “Girlfriend” by Avril Lagvine is the most viewed video on YouTube.

The best places to get new and interesting sites that haven’t been gamed for popularity are new web engines that are still in beta. One of the best new start ups for link discovery that we’ve seen in awhile is called Socialbrowse. This site lets you share links in a Twitter fashion, and lets you follow what other people are linking. This is definitely one to watch out for.

On a sad note, we’d like to talk about the recent death of George Carlin. The man was a funny man and a brilliant thinker. In tribute to  Mr. Carlin, we here at the Freeline would like to present the “Seven Words and/or Phrases You Can’t Say in a Marketing Email:”

1. Penis
2. “Free insurance”
3. “Click here!”
4. Enhancement
5. “Deposed dictator”
6. “Apply today!”
7. “Canadian pharmaceuticals”

For more on  George Carlin, his life, and his work, check out YouTube.

Sometimes, it’s not easy being free. QTrax, the legal free download program for big label music, launched last week to a slew of problems. First and foremost, their music library is very small. Really, really small. Things are definitely getting better, but their library is nowhere near “iTunes” levels as of yet. Once - or rather, if - you find the song that you want, there’s a good possibility that you won’t be able to actually listen to it. Devices supporting the Windows PlaysForSure label do not support the QTrax files, despite the company claiming otherwise. A free, legal, and robust way to share and load files is coming sooner or later. As Axl Rose once said, “all we need is just a little patience.”

Going from one unpredictable rocker to another, Kid Rock is at it again. The music superstar is currently boycotting iTunes, claiming that most of the money made from album sales go to the record companies and Apple. The artist, in turn, ends up with little or nothing. “The Internet was an opportunity for everyone to be treated fairly,” Rock said in a recent interview with the BBC. “[The record companies] stuck to the ‘old system’.” So in true “rock and roll” fashion, the so-called “American Badass” is telling his fans to “steal” his albums… along with everything else of value. “I don’t mind people stealing my music [from the Internet], that’s fine. But I think they should steal everything. You know how much money the oil companies have? If you need some gas, just go fill your tank off [sic] and drive off, they’re not going to miss it.” The record industry, Apple, the oil companies, and everyone else who sells a product or service have declined to comment on the issue. If Kid Rock had watched the Free Line, he could have had the idea to release his albums for free, like Trent Reznor and Radiohead.

In other media news, the ten minute time limit placed upon all YouTube videos will become a thing of the past for some. Instead of dealing with the pesky time limit, special “partners” of Google - mainly independent filmmakers - will now have the opportunity to work with a “weight limit” of one gigabyte. By removing the time constraints, these filmmakers will now have the ability to present their work in one piece. Since these videos can support ads, both Google and their newfound partners can make some nice money from the venture. Will this support ever reach the normal YouTube users? Probably not, but it’s nice to see a company like Google lend a hand to the people who truly need it.

If YouTube and Twitter had a baby, what would it look like? We think that it would a lot like Seesmic. Seesmic is attempting to add something new in to the “microblogging” game: video. Twitter with real time video output… definitely an intriguing idea. The private beta is one of the hardest to get into right now, but if you can find an invite you’re in for a treat - or rather, “tweet.”

So maybe new fangled technology like Twitter and YouTube aren’t “your thing.” Maybe you prefer a more boring traditional medium to convey your ideas, like a slide show. It was good enough for former Vice President Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth. The fine folks at Wired How-To have a great article up detailing how the controversial slide show was made, and eight steps you can take to make your own highly slept through talked about masterpiece. So go on… unleash your inner “Al Gore.” You won’t be sorry.

As you know, Viral Videos are one of the most powerful marketing tools ever created. Just ask the rock band Weezer, who tapped the YouTube talent pool to make their latest video a smash hit. They pulled in all of YouTube’s most popular stars to make a cameo. Including that weeping kid who loved Britney Spears a little too much. They then uploaded it to YouTube and watched it’s popularity soar.

All forms of social media can be used to generate big exposure, not just videos. A fake news story on a boy who goes on a spending spree and plays his Xbox with hookers made it to the top page of Digg. It was later reported on Fox News as being a real honest to goodness true news story. It wasn’t but it generated roughly 6,000 inbound links. That’s some killer exposure…

Well, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand the power of online video, but the ones down at NASA, who now are sending us live photos of the Martian landing mission seem to have a fir grasp. We reported on this earlier in the week, and we now have something to look at it. The Phoenix Mars Mission site is alive and kicking, and has tons of great photographs of the landing and the surface of mars.

Even the indie movie industry is getting in on the whole viral video thing. IndieFlix created a marketplace for independent films called MyFestival. It will stream video, and will let users select movies for film festivals. The most popular and most viral movies rise to the top. They will be performing a trail of the software for the Seattle International Film Festival.

Of course, not everyone sees online videos as the way of the future. Viacom is currently suing YouTube for copyright infringement, asking for over 1 million dollars in damages. We feel Viacom’s lawsuit is kind of a direct attack on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a law that was passed to help keep freedom of speech free on the internet. Google has gone on record saying that, “Viacom threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment and political and artistic expression.”

中文版视频：

你知道，病毒视频可以说是史上最成功的营销工具之一。不信的话可以问一下Weezer乐队，【他们刚刚利用YouTube视频内容成就了自己音乐电视。他们从YouTube上节选了最火的视频并做成了专辑。包括那个喜欢布莱尼到过头到哭泣的小男孩】。最后他们就把它传到了YouTube上结果点击率飙升。

任何种类的社交网络都可以产生巨大的效果，不只是视频而已。比如一则关于一个骄奢淫逸的小男孩与妓女玩游戏的虚假新闻就成了Digg上的第一名。它随后被当作一个真实消息转载在Fox新闻中。然而它却产生了6000多个入站链接。这个不是个小数目……

呃，虽然你不用为了了解网络视频的去学习火箭技术，但是那些在【NASA给我们发送火星登陆照片的人们好像蛮厉害的。。。我们本周早些时候报道了这则消息而且现在已经就可以开始观赏。凤凰火星计划网站已经成功上线，并且上面有许多关于火星登陆已经火星表面的照片。

现在甚至独立电影业也已经开始搞起病毒视频这种东西了。IndieFlix为独立电影们创建了一个新的场所叫做MyFestival.com。【它会允许用户们为各个电影节选取自己喜欢的电影，而那些最受欢迎的电影会被顶到最上面。网站的程序会首先在西雅图国际电影节上小试牛刀。】

当然并不是所有人都觉得网络视频是个好东西。Viacom目前正因为侵权问题起诉YouTube。我们觉得Viacom的诉讼是对千禧年版权法的一个直接攻击，而后者是一项保护网络言论自由的法案。Google已经发表回应说：“Viacom这样做威胁了数百万人合法的交换信息，新闻，娱乐和政治表达的渠道。这是一个重大事件，我们会一直跟踪报道的。

Internet bullying might be decreased… if the Missouri Legislature has anything to say about it, that is. A new bill, which was passed by an overwhelming margin in both houses, makes it possible for the state to prosecute those who use electronic devices to harass others. Previously, the harassing statement had to have been hand written or made in a phone conversation. This expansion of the law, is the direct result of the death of Megan Meier, a thirteen year old girl who committed suicide after being harassed on MySpace. The bill is currently awaiting the approval of Governor Mark Blunt.

Elsewhere, Czech developer Grisoft has released AVG 8.0 Free Edition, the latest in the popular line of anti-virus protection. Like its previous incarnations, AVG 8.0 Free removes all of the extraneous programs and tools that most users ignore, choosing instead to focus on what it does best: virus protection. While the aforementioned “bells and whistles” are available, the user will have to pay for them. We suggest sticking with the Free edition and using other freely available programs such as Ad Aware, Spybot Search and Destroy, and Hijack This to remove the nasties AVG overlooks.

If you still crave more free security, we’ve got a link that will show you how to encrypt your Gmail account. It’s pretty straight forward- you just need to download the free GPG application and the encryption plugin for Firefox. After that, you can send and receive encrypted messages with Gmail. And there’s a bonus — at the end of the article there is a link that shows you how to encrypt Mac’s Mail program as well.

Next, YouTube has expanded its Insight application with demographic reports. Insight is the recently released addition to the YouTube control panel that allows you to track who sees your videos and when. Now you can easily track who’s viewing your videos based on age, gender, or a combination of the two, in addition to the previously implemented geographic metrics.

And finally, Abobe has released an update to its Flash Player. Version 10 now supports Linux and sports an improved interface . Most of the improvements are made for developers — perhaps most noticeable for the end user is the speed increase, giving any website that uses Flash a noticeably faster load time.

密苏里立法部门最近对这个问题有了新的说法。该州出台了一项新的法案，并在两院的投票中以高额票数通过，这也使该州在未来可以对用电子设备对它人进行骚扰的人提起诉讼。而此前，只有手写的文字和电话内容才会被算作骚扰性语言。这项新的法案跟Megan Meier的死亡有直接关系，这个13岁的女孩在MySpace上被别人进行骚扰后在家中自杀。该法案目前正在等待州长Mark Blunt的通过。

最近，捷克软件公司Grisoft刚刚发布了AVG 8.0的免费版，从而加入了在线杀毒软件的大军。与之前的一样，AVG 8.0免费版去掉了所有用户们通常忽略的高级程序和功能，转而把注意力集中在自己的核心上，也就是杀毒。虽然开发人员说程序将提供高级功能，但是用户需要对它们付费。我们建议大家使用免费的版本或者其它类似的程序比如Ad Aware, Spybot Search and Destroy，和Hijack this来弥补AVG的缺失。

如果你安全还不放心，这个链接还会告诉你如何对你的Gmail帐户进行加密。方法很简单，你只需要下载一个免费的GPG程序和一个Firefox的加密插件。之后，你就可以通过Gmail收发加密过的邮件了。还不光如此，在这篇文章的最后它还会教你如何对苹果的邮件进行加密。

接下来，YouTube最近在它的洞察程序中加入了浏览者统计信息。不久前发布的“洞察”可以可以使你追踪哪些人在什么时间浏览了你的视频。现在你可以轻松了解浏览者的年龄、性别、或者它们的综合，你还可以结合之前的地理信息工具一起使用。

最后，Adobe对Flash播放器进行了升级。第10版现在支持了Linux和一个改进的界面。大部分改进都是针对程序员的——也许对终端用户最直接的好处就是速度的提升，它可使任何Flash网站读取的速度有明显的加快。

The folks at StomperNet recently released a video with a look Inside StomperNet — it’s an inspirational three act story about the actual results online business owners have gotten inside the world’s leading internet marketing training organization. It passed 3000 views on YouTube and is the most watched video on Vidilife so far today. If you’re an internet entrepreneur and want a little inspiration, follow this link to watch this video.

New York Times.com design director, Khoi Vinh, said in a recent interview that they hand code every single webpage — and getter faster and better results in their cross-platform browser consistency.

We have a link to an article on Wired’s How To Wiki that will show you how to improve Amazon’s automated suggestions. It’s a cool and easy way to both save time and find more stuff you’d like — automatically.

Google recently talked with the New York Times about a new approach to visual search that could be as revolutionary for searching images as PageRank was for text based searching. They’re calling it VisualRank, and it’s an algorithm for blending image-recognition software methods with techniques for weighting and ranking images that look most similar.

The time and date has passed for Microsoft to “do something” in their attempt to purchase Yahoo. The latest Wall Street Journal article with three bylines cites no sources, specifically, but says Microsoft is considering both a move to elect Microsoft friendly directors or to take the fight directly to the shareholders.

MySpace plans on pushing the Free Line by offering, (and I quote), “all the music in the world” for free.

YouTube rolled out a beta release of its three newest features, which they refer to as improvements in the overall management of your messages, contacts, and videos.

AT&T has decided to enter into the Web Browser market by crafting it’s own offering: Pogo—in private beta now.

And finally, Popular Mechanics has an interesting interview online with Web search guru, Udi Manber.