Microsoft Spends $6 Billion, Anyone Interested in the News ?

Microsoft has acquired an online advertising firm called aQuantive for about $6 billion. That's about 4x the Google-Youtube deal and 2x the Google-DoubleClick deal.

With this acquisition, Microsoft plans to create an online advertising platform for it's own properties like MSN, Windows Live, Xbox Live, and Office Live, as well as for third party publishers..

The very surprising part is that this story is not on Techmeme yet. This latest screen capture of Techmeme homepage shows that iPhone rumor is still the top story in the blogosphere.

Either the news about Microsoft acquiring aQuantive hasn't spread yet or announcements from Redmond don't excite people (read bloggers) enough.


Techmeme sported a very different look when Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 Billion.

Google Gadgets on Web Pages Without Google Branding - Quite Possible

Google Gadgets, which were previously available only for iGoogle and Google Desktop, can now be embedded inside any blog or web page using a line of HTML/Javascript code.

Select any Google Gadget from the official Google list and click the "Add to your webpage" button. You can also modify the width, height, frame border colors and other properties of the Google widget so that it blends perfectly in you web pages.

Here's a screen capture of the popular Calendar / Clock Google gadget placed on a webpage.


Every Google Gadget has a title, an "Add to Google" rectangular button and a tag line that says "Gadgets Powered by Google"

In order to display a Google Gadget on your webpage without these extra Google related links / images, here are the steps involved:

1. Replace the <script> tag in the Google Gadget code with <iframe>

Before:
<script src="http://gmodules.com/ig/ifr?..
...url=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/datetime..
..%23999999&output=js></script>

After:
<iframe src="http://gmodules.com/ig/ifr?..
...url=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/datetime..
..%23999999&output=js></iframe>

2. Replace the parameter output=js in Gadget HTML code with output=html

3. Delete the "w" and "h" parameter from the HTML code and add the following attributes to the iFrame URL:

height = "300" width = "250" frameborder = "0" scrolling = "no"

[The height and width values may be different in your case]

The final Google Gadget code that doesn't display the Google Logo or any other hyperlinks to Google Gadgets directory will look something like this:

<iframe src="http://gmodules.com/ig/ifr?..
...url=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/datetime..
..%23999999&output=js height="300" width="250"..
..frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Important: Modify the Google Gadgets code at your own risk as it might go against Google guidelines that say:

You agree not to modify or remove the "Gadgets powered by Google" text and link or the "+Google" button or other promotional text or images provided by Google with the gadget code.

You understand and agree that Google retains the option to replace the "+Google" button with content, including advertising or promotional content, that occupies the same space and position on your page when you display the gadget.

Related: Google Gadgets with Adsense Ads

Poll for Bloggers: Where Do You Compose Blog Posts ?

There are a zillion ways to compose and edit blog posts. Some people write a blog post offline inside Notepad and then use the online editors of Wordpress or Blogger to publish their posts.

Some use blog editing software like Blogjet, w.bloggar or Windows Live Writer to compose and publish blog posts from their desktop. Other bloggers just email the post to a specific address and it's automatically published online.

What is your favorite method for writing a blog post ? Please take this online poll (multiple choice)


[If you are reading this article inside a news reader, request you to visit the home page to answer this poll. Thanks]

Move Your Blogs from Blogger to WordPress The Easy Way

If you have been planning to migrate your blog from Blogger to Wordpress but found the whole process of importing blogger posts with comments into Wordpress too technical and complicated, here's a very good news for you.

You can now move all blogs posts and comments from your Blogger account into your WordPress blog with the click of a button - it's so simple that even mom can do it as long as her blog is hosted on the new Blogger platform.


Wordpress.com and self-hosted Worpress 2.2 installations ship default with a free Blogger Importer plugin that can be accessed from your Wordpress dashboard (Manage -> Import -> Blogger)

All you have to do is authorize Wordpress to use your Google account and Wordpress will display a list of blogs associated with Blogger account. Select the blog that you like to import in blogger and click import. Voila!

All your posts, comments, categories (Blogger labels) and users will be visible in Wordpress in few minutes depending on the size of your Blogger Blog.

Even if you have no plans to switch from Blogger to Wordpress, this is still an excellent option to create a backup of all the posts and comments from the Blogger blog.

For Geeks: This Wordpress-Blogger Importer will not change anything in your Blogger hosted blog - neither the timestamp formats nor the blogger templates. It simple uses the Google Blogger API to fetch the blogger posts into Wordpress.

The Blogger Importer script will however not import the Blogger images to your Wordpress installation. And there's no way to specify filters on your Blogger posts - everything will be imported in one go.

Wallpaper Roller to Decorate Your Home With Flickr Pictures

Some may confuse Wallpeppr with another cool Web 2.0 app that turns Flickr images into attractive desktop wallpapers. But it's something very different.

Wallpeppr is a special Wallpaper roller that hooks to your computer via a cable and lets you paint Flickr images on the physical walls of your room.


The Wallpeppr software connects to the Flickr website and transfers your favorite picture to the roller which prints it on the wall with ink as you roll over.

Sorry, you cannot buy this "Flickr roller" yet. [The guy in the picture is actually painting the wall with a Flickr picture, not removing or covering the wallpaper with paint roller]

Wallpeppr [Designer: Carlo Jorges] Thanks Ed

Related: Protect the iPod or BlackBerry from Water or Dust

Upload and Save Microsoft Office Documents Online in One Click

Box.net, the online file storage service that offers 1GB of free storage space, has developed some excellent add-ons that could make this service a darling for Microsoft Office users.

Box.net offers a virtual file explorer for your uploaded documents, pictures and videos. You can put this file explorer anywhere in your website and visitors can easily navigate through your files, download them offline or they can subscribe to your files in their newsreader.

Today, Box.net unveiled another useful service called "Office on Demand" - this is an add-on for your Microsoft Office programs that will let you save files directly from Word, Excel or Powerpoint directly to your online Box.net account. No need to launch your web browser.

Other than the convenience factor, Box.net is tightly integrated with Zoho Docs and Zoho sheet. Even if your computer has no Office license, you can still edit the .DOC or .XLS files from Box.net directly in Zoho Office and save the edited files back to Box.net.

Download Box.net Add-on | Thanks Zoli Erdos

I am also expecting Google to release an Office plugin that will allow offline editing of documents stored in Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

Related: Editing Zoho Docs Offline in Microsoft Word

Hide That SkyScraper Ad in Yahoo! Mail

Yahoo! Mail (the new DHTML version) displays a fairly unobtrusive skyscraper banner near the right edge of the browser window.

The Yahoo! ad rotates or change every time time you open a new mail message in Yahoo! mail or switch Yahoo! folders (like from Inbox to Drafts to Trash)


Now Yahoo! is giving users a chance to hide that long vertical banner if they are not interested in the advertiser's product or service. Just click the arrow bar on the right side that says "Hide Advertisement" and the ad is gone from your current view.

Don't get too excited because the ad will reappear when you open another email message or move to a different mail folder.

This is another good idea from Yahoo especially for email users who do not have a wide screen monitor - by hiding the 160pixel wide graphic, they get a much larger viewing area for their emails.

Trivia: Unlike the contextual ads of Gmail (which vary depending on the text of your email), Yahoo! Mail ads are geo-targeted but not contextual in nature. via

Related: Google Web Search Without Ads