If you want to change or remove the gradient on the counter and update the value of the counter, you can do so by manipulating the innerHTML property of the "counterField" element. Check out this example here
<div id="noti_Container">
<img height="48" width="48" src="http://cdn1.iconfinder.com/data/icons/DarkGlass_Reworked/128x128/actions/kopetestatusmessage.png" />
<div id="counterField" class="noti_bubble">1000</div>
</div>
Below is the CSS code that styles the counter (may not display perfectly in IE):
#noti_Container {
position:relative;
border:1px solid blue;
width:48px;
height:48px;
}
.noti_bubble {
position:absolute;
top: 10px;
right:10px;
padding:1px 2px 1px 2px;
background: rgb(255,175,75); /* Old browsers */
background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, rgba(255,175,75,1) 0%, rgba(255,146,10,1) 100%); /* FF3.6+ */
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,rgba(255,175,75,1)), color-stop(100%,rgba(255,146,10,1))); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */
background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, rgba(255,175,75,1) 0%,rgba(255,146,10,1) 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */
background: -o-linear-gradient(top, rgba(255,175,75,1) 0%,rgba(255,146,10,1) 100%); /* Opera 11.10+ */
background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, rgba(255,175,75,1) 0%,rgba(255,146,10,1) 100%); /* IE10+ */
background: linear-gradient(to bottom, rgba(255,175,75,1) 0%,rgba(255,146,10,1) 100%); /* W3C */
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#ffaf4b', endColorstr='#ff920a',GradientType=0 ); /* IE6-9 */
border: 1px solid gray;
color:white;
font-weight:bold;
font-size:0.65em;
border-radius:30px;
box-shadow:1px 1px 1px gray;
}