Source: addons.mozilla.org

If you love using Google Reader to track and read RSS feeds, it becomes cumbersome to keep checking back in your browser for new articles from your favorite blogs. Now the Google Reader Notifier, a Firefox Extension will at least make it easier for firefox users.

What does it do? It simply shows you how many unread items you have in your Google Reader account. You can update the counter with a click, open the Google reader with another click, and change preferences like autorefresh time with another click. And it has multi-language support too.

You can get it at the official firefox extension page.

Spread the word: bookmark it/ readit

Source: news.searchenginestoday.org

Google has reportedly sent subpoenas to Yahoo, Microsoft and Amazon.com in an effort to get information about their own participation in book-archiving operations that would directly compete with Google.

Similar to what Amazon did two months ago, Yahoo has completely rejected Google’s attempts to investigate its book-scanning operations. Other similar reports note how Yahoo has absolutely no interest in helping Google bolster its copyright infringement defense on that case.

Yahoo calls Google’s subpoena a "brazen attempt to infiltrate its trade secrets" in snubbing the request. Amazon.com similarly called the subpoena "overly broad and unduly burdensome" about two weeks after receiving the legal missive from Google back in October.

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By: Robert Scoble | Source: webpronews.com

If you’ve been watching http://blogs.msdn.com/ which is where most of the Microsoft employees blog, you’ve seen at least a dozen mentions today of Microsoft’s new "Blend." I only let one of these through to my Link Blog, but I was just realizing how brilliant this is.

Google counts links from blogs in its search engine. So, if Microsoft wants to get something higher on Google, all it would have to do is call upon its bloggers. It’s probably the best SEO network the world has ever seen (Microsoft has more than 3,000 bloggers, with at least 500 active ones).

Internally, how does this work? The bloggers at Microsoft have a mailing list. Someone goes on the mailing list and says something innocuous, like "hey, the Expression team just announced Blend" with a URL underneath and there’ll usually be a few dozen posts in an hour.

Don’t think this matters? Well, if you search Google for Martin Luther King, you’ll notice the result set has changed quite a bit from two weeks ago (when a bunch of bloggers decided to "Google Bomb" an anti-King site to make it lower on the list because we felt it wasn’t really the most relevant result that should come up when you search for Martin Luther King).

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