I was recently doing some work with <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg491731(v=VS.85).aspx">IE9's Site Pinning API</a> and found out about a cool bit of functionality that can enhance user notifications. If you're not familiar with site pinning, it's a great way to allow users to have easy and quick access to their favorite sites via the Windows taskbar. There's a really nice <a href="http://www.beautyoftheweb.com/#/productguide/clean/seamless-with-windows-7/pinned-sites">overview on Beauty of the Web</a> that explains how it works.

<h2>Keeping Users Up-to-Date</h2>

One of the features the API provides is the notion of notifications that can allow developers to provide alerts to end users. The functionality allows you to dynamically insert custom overlay icons that can alert users when an important bit of information is available. These overlay icons are placed directly above the icon 


