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Links from Friday's episode of Loaded:

Google releases its 2010 Zeitgeist with the year's fastest growing and most popular search terms

YouTube will now allow a select group of users to upload video longer than 15 minutes, which used to be the maximum time limit allowed

Yahoo revamps Yahoo Local

A new Pew Research study shows that only 8 percent of online Americans are on Twitter

Chrome users who also use JDownloader with Rapidshare and similar sites have been a step behind Firefox fans, who enjoy browser integration via FlashGot for Firefox. JDChrome is a free extension that integrates the open-source download manager with Chrome. It lets you initiate downloads, singly or in blocks, in JDownloader from the Chrome interface.

To use JDChrome, you need to have JDownloader installed, open, and running with FlashGot enabled to access downloads in Chrome. We downloaded and installed JDChrome and opened its options page in the Chrome extensions manager. The extension offers few options beyond choosing a file extension. We … Read more

ChromePlus from Maple Studio is exactly what it sounds like: Google Chrome, plus a bunch of useful extras. Like Chrome, ChromePlus is free, and everything Chrome does, it does. The "plus" part adds Mouse Gestures, Super Drag, a Download Manager, enhanced bookmarks, an IE tab, and more.

The ChromePlus installer automatically checked for the latest version of the program; it also advised us to close Firefox so it could import bookmarks and other settings from Mozilla, just like when installing Chrome. ChromePlus happily coexists with Chrome on the same desktop; we had both open at the same time … Read more

Barnes & Noble has begun rolling out an updated version of its Nook firmware to those who own its e-ink e-readers. Considered a major update, the company says that version 1.5 of the firmware "will dramatically increase" the page-turn speeds of the Nook 3G and Nook Wi-Fi and deliver additional feature and performance enhancements.

While the user interface has largely stayed the same, search functionality on the device has improved, password protection has been added, and you can now organize your library into categories or "shelves," as they're called on the Nook. Also, the … Read more

Editors' note, Sept. 23, 2011: AdThwart was recently purchased by Firefox add-on maker AdBlock Plus, and renamed AdBlock Plus for Chrome. No substantial changes have been made to the add-on at the time of writing.

Online advertising can be a serious pain, cluttering your desktop with pop-ups and drastically slowing down page loads. A variety of browser extensions have popped up over the years to combat ads, and AdThwart works as well as any we've tried. This add-on for Chrome is easy to use and effective at keeping ads at bay.

AdThwart uses the popular and powerful Firefox AdBlock … Read more

Endless Slideshow Screensaver from Extreme Internet Software is a free slideshow screensaver that automatically searches for new desktop wallpaper online, downloads it, and displays it in your slideshow queue, so you always have new pictures to see. You can select categories for the program to search for, such as Nature, Animals, Cars, Girls, Men, or Cartoons. While the concept is interesting, we're not sure about the execution.

We installed Endless Slideshow Screensaver, opened its Settings dialog, and deselected all of the categories except one, Space. We clicked Preview, and the program opened and started downloading images, which it displayed … Read more

Though the Big Five browsers duke it out to see which one can come up with the best mix of speed, compatibility, and add-ons, social networking bruisers Flock 3 and RockMelt beta have taken off the kid gloves to beat each other senseless over Twitter and Facebook integration. We pit the two minor leaguers against one another in a head-to-head blog with plenty of video goodness to keep you interested.

In other news, iTunes 10.1 is out now, and with it comes AirPlay, the new feature that will allow videos to be streamed to an Apple TV. Apple introduced … Read more

Barnes & Noble announced today that it will be rolling out a major firmware update for its Nook e-Book readers in late November, calling it the biggest update yet since the Nook was launched a year ago. The company says that version 1.5 of the firmware "will dramatically increase" the page-turn speeds of the Nook 3G and Nook Wi-Fi and deliver additional feature and performance enhancements.

While Barnes & Noble didn't give much in the way of details, it did say that search on the device would be improved, and new features such as customizable library … Read more

At least part of the controversy over whether to limit the sale of fuel that's more than 10 percent ethanol is over, for now anyway. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today waived a limitation on selling 15 percent ethanol--known as E15--for cars and light trucks 2007 or newer.

Last month, a controversy brewed over whether vehicles older 2007, or 2001, would be cleared to use E15, based on tests. The organization, Follow the Science, said the 50 percent increase in ethanol could damage catalytic converters in older vehicles, as well as engines of boats, motorcycles, ATVs, snowmobiles, … Read more