The latest release of WordPress is out. There is now a list of famous WordPress bloggers blogging on WordPress.com and WordPress. WordPress.com’s April Wrap-up is out with all the exciting news about the almost 1 million blogs on WordPress.com. I’m now featuring WordPress tutorial videos to download and learn from, and seeking podcasts on WordPress tips, tricks, and tutorials. And there is plenty more WordPress news for you.
WordPress News
WordPress 2.2 Released: WordPress 2.2 is now available. Download the new version which already has over 35,000 downloads on the Download Counter. You can find a list of version changes including many bug fixes, the TinyMCE (Rich Text Editor) now works with Safari, Akismet fixes, instant update of comments after deleting comment spam, full Atom support, it’s faster, elimination of duplicate code bugs, and problems with PHP 5 not flushing output buffers, among many other improvements and fixes. Tags have been pulled and should be in the next version of WordPress.
Also see Aaron Brazellโs 10 Things You Should Know About 2.2, Ilfilosofo’s WordPress 2.2: Three Things Developers Will Like, and Wired’s WordPress Update Integrates Widgets, Boosts Performance.
Famous Bloggers on WordPress.com: WordPress.com now features a list page of the Notable Users on WordPress.com and the full version of WordPress, and they forgot to mention me! ;-) Actually, the list includes Om Malik, New York Times, Curt Schilling, Jeff Jarvis, Mike Arringtonโs TechCrunch, Financial Times, and Rolling Stone Magazine’s Rock and Roll Daily.
Looking for Past WordPress Versions? The placeholder for past versions of WordPress releases is at the WordPress Release Archive.
WordPress Blogs Hacked in Malaysia: If you are one of the many whose WordPress blogs were hacked in Malaysia recently, Zhongg Internet Digest offers “How to restore a website hacked by Jamaycka”. Right now, it isn’t clear if this threat is spreading, but make sure your WordPress blog is updated to the latest version with the security patches in place.
WordCamp 2007 – July 21-22: WordCamp 2007 will be July 21-22 in San Fransisco at the Swedish American Hall on Market Street. More info due soon.
WordPress and PHP 5: Ryan Boren discusses the issues of WordPress moving to PHP 5 and how WordPress is also determined to move forward while still staying backwards compatible, a very tough job for a program used in dozens of different countries around the world.
WordPress Videos: Last week, I started offering links to videos to help you learn more about WordPress, and I’m also seeking podcasts about WordPress tips, tricks, and techniques. Any recommendations? Here are some interesting videos on WordPress tips, techniques, and tutorials:
- Adding Video and Podcasting Bling to Your WordPress.com Blogs
- Wordpress Plugin Review: Popularity Contest
- Insert Adsense Ads with Wordpress Plugin Adsense Widget
- Wordpress Permalink Structure Migration Video
- ZEPREZ WordPress Video Guides – How To Manage Comments In Wordpress 2.0
Your Ideas Wanted! Do you have a suggestion to improve WordPress? Or want to vote on one you think is a must-have for WordPress users? Have your say on the WordPress Ideas, or at least vote one way or another to support or defeat an idea for a new and/or improved feature.
WordPress.com News
One Million Blogs on WordPress.com: The count is now at 978,002 blogs on WordPress.com with one million going to turn over any time. Do you have any predictions?
April Wrap-up: In the April Wrap-up for WordPress.com activities and achievements, Matt Mullenweg points to the New Ranking Algorithim, new servers, the addtion of Slideshows, Contact Forms, and a way to help readers find random posts on your WordPress.com blog, among many other good news announcements.
Referrer Parser: Engtech has developed a 7 day Referrer Parser for WordPress.com blogs you can download and run with perl. It uses the referrer logs to generate statistics and graphs to help you track your referrers or to post on your blog.
What’s Hot on WordPress.com? The hottest blogs on WordPress.com were:
- I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?
- 38 Pitches
- The Chawed Rosin
- strange maps
- Web Worker Daily
- Park Avenue Peerage
- Your Entertainment Now
- A Hot Mess!
- The Extrapolater
- HM
- Berkeley Place
- Philippine Elections 2007
The hottest blog posts on WordPress.com were:
- Lysol for Feminine Hygiene
- If They Were National League
- Pylons, or Python is fun again !
- CBS Development Slate for 2007/2008 Season [Update]
- A sneak peek at the latest from Sims creator
- Dioristas
- 4 Ways to Get Unstuck
- IronPython Running on Mono
- Garth Crooks loves Emmanuel Eboue
- Say It.
- Moscow Lag
- Interpol Vs. Editors
- Train of Thought: A Top Ten List
WordPress Plugins and Themes News
Underrated WordPress Plugins: Daily Blog Tips offers “Top 10 Underrated Wordpress Plugins”, a list of the Plugins that get “no respect” but deserve it.
Improving WordPress Comments: While Reply To From Admin Panel WordPress Plugin by Digital Ramble is still in development to make replying from your WordPress Administration Comment Panel to comments easier, Better Comments Manager Wordpress Plugin is out with some of the same requested features for WordPress comments. Maybe the two of them can get together to make this an even more powerful WordPress Plugin.
- 5 zodiac signs who will achieve greater happiness in February 2025 - My Inner Creative
- People who need constant noise to focus usually display these 10 traits, according to psychology - NewsReports
- People who grew up masking their true feelings usually exhibit these 7 behaviors as adults, according to psychology - Hack Spirit
Global Translator WordPress Plugin Updated: According to Quick Online Tips, the popular Global Translator Wordpress Plugin has been updated, fixing many recent problems. It now uses either or both of the Google Translation or the Babelfish Translation Engines and now has improved caching and the option of DIVs or table layout.
Bring Auctions to Your WordPress Blog: Easy AuctionAds WordPress Plugin allows you to bring the auction to your WordPress blog.
PayPerPost Your Way: While the backlash against PayPerPost continues, the WordPress BankRoll WordPress Plugin may help you generate income from your WordPress blog by working directly with advertisers to buy “reviews” on your blog, paying all the money to you. This can probably be used in a variety of ways to find sponsors and advertiers for your blog posts where you control the plan, not the plan controlling you. See the full explanation and review by JohnTP.com.
Most Popular WordPress Themes: The WordPress Theme Viewer now features 2,842 Themes and 4,318,387 Themes downloads. The top WordPress Themes are:
- Vistered Little 1.6
- MistyLook 3.1
- WP-Andreas01 1.5
- Water 1.1
- ChaoticSoul 1.0
- Japanese Cherry Blossom 1.0
- Cordobo Green Park 0.9.2 BETA 12
- Mandigo 1.16
- Mesozoic 2.0
- Sky3c 2.0
WordPress Plugin Directory: The new WordPress Plugin Directory is going strong and improving as it develops. According to their list, the most popular WordPress Plugins downloaded are:
- Sidebar Widgets
- Akismet
- Subscribe to Comments
- Google Sitemap Generator for WordPress
- podPress
- WPG2 – WordPress / Gallery2 Integration
More WordPress Plugins can be found on the WordPress Plugins Database.
WordPress Community News
Looking for a WordPress Expert? Do you want a custom WordPress blog? Want to convert your website into a WordPress blog or use WordPress as a CMS? If you are looking for an expert in WordPress Themes, WordPress development, WordPress Plugins, or other WordPress-related expertise, check out the list of WordPress Consultants on Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, and the WP-Pro mailing list.
WordPress Installed For Free: If you have problems installing the full version of WordPress, visit Installing WordPress for Free (aka Install4Free WordPress). This free, volunteer-driven service is limited to personal blogs only, and they help only with installations, not upgrades.
WordPress Techniques and Tips
Know of any great WordPress tips and techniques articles? Let me know and it may end up on our weekly list.
- Categories Drive Traffic To Your Blog
- Likoma Design – WordPress Overview Help Video
- Christian Montoya – Full-featured comments.php Template for Wordpress
- The Undersigned – From XHTML and CSS to WordPress
- ProBlogger – How to: Placing Adsense Strategically Between Posts
- Cre8d Design – Separating Pingbacks and Trackbacks from Comments in WordPress 2.0
More WordPress News
Matt Mullenweg – Overnight Success: Matt Mullenweg gives a good perspective on the issue of being an overnight success in the online world. Other recent interviews include Matt Mullenweg: Wizard of WordPress, part 1 and Part Two.
WordPress Events
The following are upcoming WordPress group meetings and meetups, and a few special blogging events you may want to attend. If you know of any I’ve missed, please post them or contact me on my WordPress Events Page.
- New York City WordPress Meetup – May 19
- Philadelphia WordPress Meetup – May 19
- WordPress DK Meetup (Denmark) – May 20
- WordPress Party in San Fransisco for WordPress developers and fans and part of the 4th birthday celebrations for WordPress – May 21
- Houston WordPress Meetup – May 26
- San Fransisco WordPress Meetup – May 26
- WordCamp 2007 – San Fransisco – July 21-22
- BlogHer Conference ’07: A World of Difference – Chicago – July 27-28
- Blog Business Summit – Chicago – September 17-19
For a WordPress Meetup near you and other blogging events, check out the WordPress Meetup Group List.
For more news on WordPress, see:
- WordPress Planet
- WordPress Development Blog
- WordPress.com Blog
- Weblog Tools Collection
- BloggingPro’s WordPress News and Tips
- The WordPress Community Podcast
- Lorelle on WordPress
Extra Tip of the Week
WordPress Template Tags: If you have the full version of WordPress, you need to know about the Template Tags resource list on the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress Users. It lists all the various template tags, the program function codes that make WordPress Themes gather information from the database and your WordPress settings to display your WordPress blog information the way you want it to be.
For example, the wp_list_categories template tag is the new category listing tag for WordPress 2.1+. The list_authors template tag allows you to display a list of the authors on your blog, which the Blog Herald uses in the Contributors list in the far sidebar here. The template tag for showing date and times for your post is the_date. And the “mysterious”, now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t template tag, edit_post_link, appears on your blog posts when you are logged in so you can quickly edit the post, but isn’t visible to those not logged into your blog.
If you are a WordPress Theme or Plugin developer, the Template Tags need to become your best friends.
Each Wednesday on Blog Herald is WordPress Wednesday, featuring the news around the WordPress Community.
Lorelle VanFossen blogs about blogging and WordPress on Lorelle on WordPress.
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