According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is in talks to buy a famous video sharing website, YouTube, for US$1.6 billion. A purchase of YouTube could give a big boost to the online video efforts of Google. YouTube commanded 46% of visits to U.S. online video sites in August, according to market research firm Hitwise. That compared to a 23% share for the video activities of News Corp.’s MySpace social-networking site, and 10% for Google Video. This rumor has not yet been confirmed by either Google or YouTube.

Via Wall Street Journal.

Google Gadgets are mini-applications which can work with the Google homepage, Google Desktop, or any page on the web. These mini-applications can range from simple HTML to complex applications, and can be a calendar, a weather globe, a media player, or anything else you can dream up. There are two types of Google Gadgets, universal gadgets and desktop gadgets. The Universal Gadget works with the Google homepage, Google Desktop, or your own webpage, while the Desktop Gadget only works with Google Desktop. The gallery of 1,220 Google Gadgets has been made available to homepage users, such as financial information, sports news, communication tools, jokes, horoscopes, or geometric puzzle games. However, the applications are subject to limitations of the browser being used by the homepage owner. And the most important thing is that these “gadgets” do not work when the user is offline. Visit Google Gadgets for more info.

Via Google Gadgets.

The Web Developer’s List is a website which contains links to the most useful web designer / developer resources on the web. The website collects the best links for webdevelopers on the world wide web. It is divided into some categories such as fonts, PHP, Javascript, hosting, image editing, and much more. The Web Developer’s List is compatible with both professionals and beginners. Just add it to your bookmark’s toolbar.

If Google isn’t enough, you might need a real person to guide you with your search. ChaCha is a new search engine that offers free life human guides to assist you with your queries. They will cost you an average of US$5-10 an hour, depending on their level of expertise on a certain topic.

Via ChaCha.

TwelveWAY is a network of tutorials, stock photos, and artists and is a deep database of those things. In another word, the guys behind this website are trying to create a one stop resource website for the web designers. They are currently accepting tutorials, resources, and articles. So if you have a website that has a lot of resources to submit, then you can contact Ian Golden and he will arrange an auto submission for you.

Via AdesBlog.

Yahoo’s Ultra-new Site Explorer allows you to explore all the web pages indexed by Yahoo! Search, View the most popular pages from any site, dive into a comprehensive site map, and find pages that link to that site or any page. Check it out at Yahoo.

Via TrendHunter.

Several bloggers are now using Google’s MP3 wrapper in an inline frame to stream audio onto their sites. The same thing happens on Gmail. A new GMail feature lets you play MP3 files right inside the GMail interface without having to download the MP3 or open an external media player. As a result, when an MP3 appears in your Gmail inbox, you can listen to it right on the spot. Just click the button beside the file name and a stripped down version of Google Video Player will pop up and play the song.

Via Digital Inspiration and AnythingButiPod.

If you want your blog to get listed on Google then adding a sitemap would be a good first step, especially if it is a new blog since it takes quite some time for Google to index your blog on its own. XML-Sitemaps.com is a tool that helps you generate Free Google Sitemaps with unlimited number of URLs per sitemap. When your sitemap is ready, you can download it in .xml, xml.gz, .ror, .html and .txt file formats. And when you’re finished creating your sitemap, you can simply submit it to Google.

Via Ades Blog.

From the Blog Herald:

WordPress just broke a new record having served up over a million downloads. The number will undoubtedly continue to exponentially grow and I congratulate the developers for their hard work and persistance.

That’s quite a milestone for a blogging software. Kudos to WordPress and the developers!! *woot*

If you’re like us and you check your AdSense stats around the clock every moment you get a chance to then you might’ve noticed the reminder AdSense has put up on their stats control panel. It seems like too many people are checking their stats too many times so Google decided to put a timer there to remind us to get a life. LOL.

Via ProBlogger.