Microsoft on Blog Spam It looks like they did a lot of searching of Blogger and Google’s related sites to try and dig up dirt. Akismet gets a mention. Sadly, all big talk and no solution or hint at a solution from Microsoft.

Scrapblog – online scrapbooks: I was slightly apprehensive when I first came upon this link with the thinking that this is going to be another place to store photos and build slideshows. Another group of LLCers trying to break into the Flickr, YouTube hype. I think I changed my mind after looking through the scrapblogs that are already created. This could be interesting and fun for the casual blogger. I think of these as photo albums on steroids. You can even embed your scrapblogs into existing blogs. Looks like you drag and drop peices into your “slideshow” from existing objects.

FeedOnFeeds Redux New development team and new life in the stagnated FeedOnFeeds online aggregator. The version history is lacking major feature additions but something is better than nothing.

WordPress Theme Competition Only new themes can be submitted, only themes not based on a previously released themes (K2 mods etc) will be accepted, and semantic code and cross browser capable themes will be weighed a lot to. I feel much better about this competition than the pervious one and I like Thomas’ work. I will definitely be keeping an eye out and I really like the “New Themes only” idea. Thomas, please let me know where I should send my share of the prize money. Also, I would suggest choosing a unique and small(ish) name for the competition to keep things fresh.

Dell Weblog: Lots has been written about Dell’s foray into the blogosphere. I am not privy to the insider information that many of the above authors are, but it seems as though this is an attempt by Dell to make things more personal. I see shades of Channel 9 with the various vlog entries promoting new items and flashes of GM’s blog. Even the “About” page link location and theme (content) looks similar to GMs. Maybe they used the same company? This smells more of cheap advertising than anything else. Maybe this is a start, but Dell could have done much better with the resources they must have at their disposal. Maybe Scoble is a rarity but I find it hard to believe that they could not find a CBO worth their salt to provide the sushi rice to hold it all together.

WP Plugin: SB_Chart Automagically create and include stock trend charts into your WordPress blog. Stock data comes from Yahoo. Thanks Plugin DB

WP plugin: Adsense Beautifier Increase your AdSense CTR with small pictures next to your AdSense ads. This plugin makes the process simpler. On a side note, AdSense has already started doing this on some of their ads. I have noticed it on my eBayToSMS page.

WP Theme: Water Two column, black on white, somewhat sparse theme for WordPress with widgets support. Has a very distinct blog feel to it.