YouTube’s only direct reference to the Hitler parodies was a hyperlink from the word “parody” in the blog post, but it’s clear given the timing that the Downfall takedowns were the reason YouTube spoke up. It wrote in general terms about its Content ID system, which allows copyright holders to request immediate takedowns based on their own standards.

We’ve got some analysis below, as well as two very meta Hitler parodies.

Parody-Makers Can Restore Their Videos

The disputes will likely stick, because it’s easy to argue that the Downfall videos fall into the parody category, and parodies are fair use of copyrighted content in the applicable laws. Some of the videos that were taken down have already been restored, including the “Hitler Orders DMCA Takedown” video (embedded below) — that’s the one YouTube linked in its blog post.

Embracing Free Publicity

Some, however, know that viral videos can be a form of flattery and free publicity. When asked about parodies users have made of his company’s own content, Nike VP of Digital Sport Stefan Olander told the YouTube Biz Blog: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We love when people engage and participate in the storytelling.” Even Downfall director Oliver Hirschbiegel told New York Magazine, “You couldn’t get a better compliment as a director.”

Oh, and there’s one more interesting tidbit: The Downfall takedowns took place on what would have been Hitler’s 121st birthday.

Hitler Orders DMCA Takedown

Hitler Reacts to Downfall Parody Removals

And it can ruin the sleep of cellphone executives everywhere.

Line2 gives your iPhone a second phone number — a second phone line, complete with its own contacts list, voice mail, and so on. The company behind it, Toktumi (get it?), imagines that you’ll distribute the Line2 number to business contacts, and your regular iPhone number to friends and family. Your second line can be an 800 number, if you wish, or you can transfer an existing number.

To that end, Toktumi offers, on its Web site, a raft of Google Voice-ish features that are intended to help a small businesses look bigger: call screening, Do Not Disturb hours and voice mail messages sent to you as e-mail. You can create an “automated attendant” —“Press 1 for sales,” “Press 2 for accounting,” and so on — that routes incoming calls to other phone numbers. Or, if you’re pretending to be a bigger business than you are, route them all to yourself.

The Line2 app is a carbon copy, a visual clone, of the iPhone’s own phone software. The dialing pad, your iPhone Contacts list, your recent calls list and visual voice mail all look just like the iPhone’s.

(Let’s pause for a moment here to blink, dumbfounded, at that point. Apple’s rules prohibit App Store programs that look or work too much like the iPhone’s own built-in apps. For example, Apple rejected the Google Voice app because, as Apple explained to the Federal Communications Commission, it works “by replacing the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls.” That is exactly what Line2 does. Oh well—the Jobs works in mysterious ways.)

So you have a second line on your iPhone. But that’s not the best part.

Line2 also turns the iPhone into a dual-mode phone. That is, it can make and receive calls either using either the AT&T airwaves as usual, or — now this is the best part — over the Internet. Any time you’re in a wireless hot spot, Line2 places its calls over Wi-Fi instead of AT&T’s network.

That’s a game-changer. Where, after all, is cellphone reception generally the worst? Right — indoors. In your house or your office building, precisely where you have Wi-Fi. Line2 in Wi-Fi means rock-solid, confident reception indoors.

Line2 also runs on the iPod Touch. When you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot, your Touch is now a full-blown cellphone, and you don’t owe AT&T a penny.

But wait, there’s more.

Turns out Wi-Fi calls don’t use up any AT&T minutes. You can talk all day long, without ever worrying about going over your monthly allotment of minutes. Wi-Fi calls are free forever.

Well, not quite free; Line2 service costs $15 a month (after a 30-day free trial).

But here’s one of those cases where spending more could save you money. If you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot most of the time (at work, for example), that’s an awful lot of calling you can do in Wi-Fi — probably enough to downgrade your AT&T plan to one that gives you fewer minutes. If you’re on the 900-minute or unlimited plan ($90 or $100 a month), for example, you might be able to get away with the 450-minute plan ($70). Even with Line2’s fee, you’re saving $5 or $15 a month.

Line2 also lets you call overseas phone numbers for Skype-like rates: 2 to 5 cents a minute to most countries. (A full table of rates is available at toktumi.com.) As a handy globetrotters’ bonus, calls home to numbers in the United States from overseas hot spots are free.

All of these benefits come to you when you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot, because your calls are carried by the Internet instead of by AT&T. Interestingly enough, though, Line2 can also make Internet calls even when you’re not in a hot spot.

It can, at your option, place calls over AT&T’s 3G data network, where it’s available. Every iPhone plan includes unlimited use of this 3G network — it’s how your iPhone sends e-mail and surfs the Web. So once again, Line2 calls don’t use up any of your monthly voice minutes.

Unfortunately, voice connections on the 3G network aren’t as strong and reliable as the voice or Wi-Fi methods. Cellular data networks aren’t made for seamless handoffs from cell tower to tower as you drive, for example — there’s not much need for it if you’re just doing e-mail and Web — so dropped calls are more likely. Fortunately, if you’re on a 3G data-network call and you walk into a hot spot, Line2 switches to the more reliable Wi-Fi network seamlessly, in midcall.

Whenever you do have an Internet connection — either Wi-Fi or a strong 3G area —you’re in for a startling treat. If you and your calling partner are both Line2 subscribers, Line2 kicks you into superhigh audio-quality mode (16-bit mode, as the techies call it).

Your calling partners sound as if they’re speaking right into the mike at an FM radio station. It’s almost too clear; you hear the other person’s breathing, lip smacks, clothing rustling and so on. After years of suffering through awful cellphone audio, it’s quite a revelation to hear what you’ve been missing.

Now, this all sounds wonderful, and Line2 generally is wonderful. But there’s room for improvement.

First, as you’ve no doubt already concluded, understanding Line2 is complicated. You have three different ways to make calls, each with pros and cons.

You miss a certain degree of refinement, too. The dialing pad doesn’t make touch-tone sounds as you tap the keys. There’s no Favorites list within the Line2 app. You can’t get or send text messages on your Line2 line. (The company says it will fix all this soon.)

There’s a faint hiss on Line2 calls, as if you’re on a long-distance call in 1970. The company says that it deliberately introduces this “comfort noise” to reassure you that you’re still connected, but it’s unnecessary. And sometimes there’s a voice delay of a half-second or so (of course, you sometimes get that on regular cellphone calls, too).

Finally, a note about incoming calls. If the Line2 app is open at the time, you’re connected via Wi-Fi, if available. If it’s not running, the call comes in through AT&T, so you lose the benefits of Wi-Fi calling. In short, until Apple blesses the iPhone with multitasking software, you have to leave Line2 open whenever you put the phone to sleep. That’s awkward.

Still, Line2 is the first app that can receive incoming calls via either Wi-Fi or cellular voice, so you get the call even if the app isn’t running. That’s one of several advantages that distinguish it from other voice-over-Internet apps like Skype and TruPhone.

Another example: If you’re on a Wi-Fi call using those other programs, and someone calls your regular iPhone number, your first call is unceremoniously disconnected. Line2, on the other hand, offers you the chance to decline the incoming call without losing your Wi-Fi call.

Those rival apps also lack Line2’s call-management features, visual voice mail and conference calling with up to 20 other people. And Line2 is the only app that gives you a choice of call methods for incoming and outgoing calls.

All of this should rattle cell industry executives, because let’s face it: the Internet tends to make things free. Cell carriers go through life hoping nobody notices the cellephant in the room: that once everybody starts making free calls over the Internet, it’s Game Over for the dollars-for-minutes model.

Line2, however, brings us one big step closer to that very future. It’s going to be a wild ride.

A second major ratings service, Compete, has now released search engine share figures for June 2009 showing Microsoft’s new Bing service making a tiny gain. That, following Hitwise’s mixed stats from last week, keeps Bing in “it’s too early to say” territory. Meanwhile, Bing itself says at one month old, unique users up 8%.

Here are the figures showing share of searches each search engine handled in the United States, for June 2009 from Compete:

Normally, I’m loathe to do month-to-month comparisons, because they can be so easily skewed by many factors and not be indicative of a trend. But given Bing’s massive launch, it makes sense to look closely at the May to June 2009 change.

Bing was up — barely — from 6.2% to 6.5%, a tiny 0.3% gain. Did that hurt Google? Nope. Google rose from 73.3% to 73.9%, a 0.6% gain. Down were Yahoo and Ask, both losing 0.4% in share. AOL was unchanged (and barely registers at 0.8%).

So Bing hurt Yahoo and Ask? Hard to say. There’s often a seasonal downturn in summer, when students are out of school, so searching declines.

In terms of search volume — the actual number of searches performed — EVERYONE but Bing was down. That suggests the new marketing helped drive additional queries rather than necessarily pulled from the other players.

Google dropped from 9.145 billion searches in May to 9.065 billion searches in June, an 80 million searches drop. Yahoo lost about the same, 83 million searches. Ask lost 55 million and AOL lost 5 million. That’s 223 million searches lost. Did Bing get them all? No. Bing was up only 1 million searches.

What happened is the overall search “pie” of searches got smaller. Bing’s marketing helped it keep a larger slice of pie than likely would have happened, but the decline of the others isn’t because it “stole” from them.

And how’s Google up on a percentage basis when it’s also lost 80 million searches? That’s because on a percentage basis, Google actually got a bigger slice of the smaller pie compared to May 2009.

If searches from Bing’s “Club Bing” gaming service are included, the service does much better, gaining nearly 1% in share (0.9%). But Google also gains even more share, 1.4%. That’s because in May 2009, when Club Bing (then Club Live) figures were counted, that gave it less of a slice compared to June:

In terms of ads, Bing has more to trumpet. The percentage of “sponsored referrals,” that is the percentage of people clicking on ads compared to free results, nearly doubled from 3.1% in May to 5.6% in June, a 2.5% gain:

That comes along with news from Efficient Frontier’s research that Bing has gained click share along with advertiser spend share (see Report: Search Ad Spending Stabilizes While Bing Gains On Google, Yahoo).

Of course, both Ask and AOL saw similar gains. Ask gained 2.2% month-to-month in sponsored clicks and AOL got a 1.9% gain. Neither had major redesigns or marketing pushes.

Where’s this leave us? Hitwise: Bing Both Grows & Drops In June; Google Still Tops covers how stats last week from Hitwise were hardly conclusive. On a monthly basis, Bing lost share. On a week-by-week basis, it gained over 2% from the beginning of the month to the end.

So, it remains watch-and-see. NetRatings and comScore will be out later this month with their own figures for June. Still, we really want to see what happens around October and November, when people are back from school and the marketing barrage has ended or ramped down. How has the service done then? Bing: comScore sees Gains; Compete Sees Same Old, Same Old has more perspective about that.

Meanwhile, over at the Bing blog, Microsoft has posted some stats of its own in Bing At Month One:

• Bing said it saw an 8 percent growth in unique users (note this is users, not actual searches, if you’re trying to compare to Compete or other figures)
• Bing said its estimate of “people likely to recommend” visitors to Bing doubled
• Shopping’s said to have had a 3 times increase in visits and 5.42% increase in Cashback transactions
• Travel’s said to have had a 90% increase in traffic