Making the what's new tab stand out.

[deverill2010]

I want to make the 'what's new tab' stand out a bit more so it catches users attention when they are browsing various parts of the site.

So what I want to do is when there is a new item posted to the activity stream (what's new), I want the what's new tab to highlight in red or I want a number next to the words like so -

What's New (3)

Which highlights the number of new items.

I know the second item is possible as addonchat do it with how many users are in the chatroom.

I don't know how to recreate it though, any ideas?