The latest edition of WordPress (3.0) was recently released with much anticipation.  The majority of the new features in this edition will focus on improving security and stability.  The first difference that most will notice is the different login screen.  Instead of the default ‘admin’, users are immediately asked to create a unique username.  This eliminates the major security issues in the past with the ‘admin’ username. 

The other main difference with this release is that the default theme has been changed.  WordPress has discarded the standard ‘Kubrick’ theme and will now be using a more dynamic theme called ’2010′.  Some of the new features include:  built-in support for child themes, header customization and background alterations. The new theme also has built-in support for drop down menus.  The theme comes with 8 pre-loaded custom header backgrounds which makes modifying your theme so easy.  There is also code that can be added to your them to enable support for custom headers.

One of the minor changes that will be included is aimed at those who are concerned with the social media and be able to share across multiple platforms with ease.  This can be accomplished be using the new ‘Shortlinks’ feature.

Another change that will definitely come in handy is the ability to create custom post types.  This creates a straightforward method to create custom content aside from your regular posts and pages.

With all the changes mentioned above, I think that the possibility of creating more functional websites that are easy to customize and maintain are endless.

This is Gary Chang, an architect living in a small Hong Kong apartment that decided to make FULL use of his space and created 24 rooms:

That is something that I could definitely use in my loft/office. It is an idea that could make living in confined quarters quite comfortable though.  I guess it’s something to think about…

Last week Google introduced a new feature called Google Places. This was intended to better connect Place Pages — the way that businesses are being found today — with the tool that enables business owners to manage their presence on Google.

To help create a further connection, Google has decided to add local businesses to the street view option. In this option, names of local businesses and other “Google Places” will show up overlayed on top of buildings. As you hover over those names, a small pop-up window shows some of the listing details such as business name, phone number, and ratings.

This is the next step that Google has taken to create a more interactive search environment, that will hopefully be intuitive for its users.
I’m curious to see how this will now counter other search applications, most notably yelp.

This is the new website…take a look around.  Let me know what you think?!!