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Google’s experimental Gmail Labs has many free features users can add to the e-mail service. But that doesn’t mean all of them are cutting-edge.

A Google software engineer wrote in a blog post announcing latest Labs feature: the ability to insert images directly in the body of an e-mail.

Most e-mail services have offered this capability for years, but Google Gmail users had to settle for sending images as attachments.

Now, however, once Labs users have activated the “Inserting images” feature, they can insert images in two ways, either uploading image files from their computers or pasting in an image URL.

Users can activate Labs features by enabling them within Gmail’s Settings.

US software giant Google said it had removed several images from its Street View software, which allows web surfers to view parts of 25 British cities, after users raised privacy concerns.

Street View displays 360-degree ground-level images captured by roaming cars using digital photography equipment.

The cars began taking images last summer, and continue to capture images across the country, allowing the service to expand after its launch here on Thursday.

Just 24 hours after its release in Britain, however, Google said it had removed several pictures, including ones that users found embarrassing, such as one of a man leaving a sex shop in central London’s Soho neighbourhood, or another one of a man vomiting outside a pub in the east of the British capital.

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Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft announced a joint effort to help reduce duplicate content. The three major search engines came together to allow users to point out their preferred version of a url. This format offers users more control.

Duplicate content has been a challenging issue for a long time. Websites containing a lot of content such as a retail site, could end up with several urls for each page making it difficult for search engines to crawl.

Google gives the following example on the Webmaster Central blog:

<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.example.com/product.php?item=swedish-fish” />

Simply place this link tag in the head section of the duplicate content urls.

The tag can only be used on pages within a single site. Both absolute and relative links are acceptable, but the search engines recommend absolute links. Also, links to all urls will be directed to the one preferred url.

For more information, each of the search engines have explanations and examples in their own announcements: Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.

As Microsoft gets nearer to distributing the “release candidate,” or RC, for Windows 7, the company on Thursday talked up some of the fixes and other changes it plans to incorporate into its final code.

But it may have other worries in the meantime. The previous day, one of Microsoft’s hardware partners lent more credence to an earlier-than-expected debut for the new operating system, revealing to the press that Windows 7 would likely become publicly available in the fall.

In no mood to repeat the constant schedule slide that characterized Windows Vista, Microsoft officials have been reluctant to give any date other than the company line — Windows 7 will be out by the time of Vista’s three-year consumer release anniversary on January 30, 2010. Yet a growing body of evidence suggests that Windows 7 will make its appearance far sooner.

In the meantime, there’s plenty to be done before the day that Windows 7 actually does ship, such as fixing bugs and adding minor features before it heads to RC status.