Through the new Launchpad, um, launch, Pulliam said they have made it much easier for the typical Internet user to grab content and make it ready for placement on a destination. People visit the Launchpad site, get one piece of code, and enclose the content they want to distribute with that code.

Embedding can be performed with all the usual destinations that are popular today: MySpace, Facebook, iGoogle, Pageflakes, etc.

As an added benefit, Launchpad widgets generate real-time analytics. These show the various details associated with a widget’s placement, views, and user interactions.

That information may be accessed through the dashboard console Clearspring provides. The data may be exported to Excel, or drawn out via APIs for further assessment.

Clearspring also makes a sharing menu available, which can be skinned with one line of CSS. This allows the site publisher to make a list of sites where the widget can be shared immediately available to visitors.

If someone with an account on Blogger stops by, and wants the widget, all the person has to do is to click the Blogger button on the menu and grab the embed code. Alternately, the visitor can post that widget to the blog, email it to a friend, or bookmark it on sites like Delicious or Reddit.

Clearspring has some prominent users of its premium syndication service today. The Today Show and the NBA list among its widgety members. Launchpad leverages the technology to the broader Internet in an easy to implement and track format, which should make it worth a try for bloggers and site publishers.

Discovery was mated to a new external tank on this past Tuesday. The tank was intended for use with the shuttle Atlantis, scheduled for the mission after Discovery’s. But NASA engineers decided to make the switch and implement a couple of other changes for safety purposes.

NASA has added a heater to the liquid oxygen feedline bellows. The bellows joint could have ice form on it as super-cold liquid oxygen flows through it during the fueling process. A fear that ice forming could break off and impact the shuttle led to the installation of the heater.

During previous tests, a hydrogen diffuser valve proved to be defective. The diffuser proved to have a tighter wire weave mesh than was expected, and has been blamed for the 13 cyclings of a vent valve expected to cycle 8 or 9 times. Engineers have replaced the diffuser.

Unless the remaining inspections disclose an issue, Discovery will begin making the four mile trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad at 3 am on June 14th.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.