The WordPress 2.8 Beta Version is not yet stable. and there are still open issues. But the list of changes shown in Codex tells me that I really need to watch out for this latest version to be stable. More Updates here

Anybody  tried it ? What is your impression ?

They have manage to change the links on their main site to display the following Logo. But they forget to chain their alpha site 

This is really a big mess. The park pages will earn a lot for sure. Since there are some links saying about the

Popular Categories:

• Today’s News
• Online News
• Weather Forecast

Where a certain visitors from Search Engine you will be tempted to click.

My Suggestion , Hey guys renew your site for 10 years it will just cost you $100,  I wonder how much Thousands of dollars was lost due to that negligence.

Here are some of the smaller features and improvements in 2.6:

• Word count! Never guess how many words are in your post anymore.
• Image captions, so you can add sweet captions like Political Ticker does under your images.
• Bulk management of plugins.
• A completely revamped image control to allow for easier inserting, floating, and resizing. It’s now fully integrated with the WYSIWYG.
• Drag-and-drop reordering of Galleries.
• Plugin update notification bubble.
• Customizable default avatars.
• You can now upload media when in full-screen mode.
• Remote publishing via XML-RPC and APP is now secure (off) by default, but you can turn it on easily through the options screen.
• Full SSL support in the core, and the ability to force SSL for security.
• You can now have many thousands of pages or categories with no interface issues.
• Ability to move your wp-config file and wp-content directories to a custom location, for “clean” SVN checkouts.
• Select a range of checkboxes with “shift-click.”
• You can toggle between the Flash uploader and the classic one.
• A number of proactive security enhancements, including cookies and database interactions.
• Stronger better faster versions of TinyMCE, jQuery, and jQuery UI.
• Version 2.6 fixes approximately 194 bugs.

I think I have to wait for some time to upgrade my system since we all know that sometimes upgrades can also mess up your WordPress installation. I am using and Automatic Upgrade so upgrading is not hard, just one click and I am upgraded. Just have to wait.

Here are the changes as specified by Boren

• Insert image and edit image fixes
• SSL fixes
• i18n fixes
• Lots of new inline documentation
• Improved tag auto-suggest
• TinyMCE 3.1.1 with Opera 9.5 and Safari fixes, proper align = center removal, and improved embeds support
• jQuery UI 1.5.1

See the full list of changes since beta 2.

So if you are planning to make updates I would suggest that to do it only on your test site. Who knows the Beta might have lots of loophole that may lead to attack from Hackers.

Google Affiliate Network: As part of the integration of DoubleClick, the DoubleClick Performics Affiliate Network will now operate as the Google Affiliate Network for advertisers targeting users located in the United States. Similar to the AdSense Referrals program, the Google Affiliate Network enables publishers to apply for advertiser programs and get paid based on advertiser-defined actions instead of clicks or impressions. For further details, please visit: www.google.com/ads/affiliatenetwork. AdSense for content ads: If you have less than three AdSense for content ad units on a page, you may wish to replace the referral ad units with standard AFC ad units. If you currently use referral ads, either to promote Google products or offerings from AdWords advertisers, AdSense Referrals code will no longer display ads beginning the last week of August. We encourage you to take the following steps before the product is retired:

For some question regarding this matter you can log to their Hellp Center: Well none of my site is giving some money for AdSense Referral, therefore I am not affected by this changes. But I believe Google will strengthen their Affiliate System that is why they want it to be separated.

here are some of the New Features :

• Version/revision saves a copy of a post every time you edit it, allows you to view (not edit) each of those copies (revisions), Shows forward (in time) diffs between any two revisions.
• Add paging of Themes in Design panel
• Word Count displayed when writing and editing posts and pages
• Press This bookmarklet
• Add sorting to gallery
• Export/import post excerpts
• Theme Previewer
• Check (assigned) Categories at top Category box in Write/Manage Post
• Show when a term is both a tag and a category
• Wider Profile fields
• TinyMCE 3.1
• Two categories can have sub-categories with the same name

Great list, I just hope it does not add up to WordPress Vulnerability to Hackers.

Thanks to Jan Alvin

Incoming search terms:

• download wordpress bloggingnews theme
• wordpress BloggingNews

The site gives the latest keyword searches. They are claiming that the have partnered to different search engines site to gather all this information. Since they are still in Beta stage everything is free. I don’t know if they will have a paid version later on.

They have the daily top 10 keywords and Monthly Top 10 keywords, and no doubt those keywords that pertains to Google Stop Words are dominating.

They have to do something about those Adult and Offensive searches since this decreases their opportunity to earn. And we all know that those kind of site cannot survive without funds.

There are also other site which can give you those kind of data but this is a new site worth checking out. So what site are you using for your keyword research. Or you do not use at all ?

There is an additional feature for blogger where a site could receive a call and even the blog owner could post the voicemail with your blog

With GrandCentral, a free service from Google, you can receive phone calls and post voicemail right on your blog. Though GrandCentral is currently in a private beta test, blogger can skip the wait and get a free account immediately.

GrandCentral beta is available for testing in US. If you are a blogger in US you can try by signing their Sign up Page now. Below is the screen capture of the GrandCentral Voice Mail Box, which is called WebCall Button,

By adding GrandCentral’s WebCall button to your blog, your readers can easily call your phone or leave voicemail without ever seeing your telephone number.

Voicemail Inbox

You have an option to screen calls, either accepting them or sending them to voicemail, and you can even block unwanted callers altogether. Learn how to add a WebCall button to your blog, and try it out for yourself below:

One of my major source of visitors is in US specially for the Mobile Web user , I am sharing this info to all of you.

Thanks to [ buzz.blogger.com ]

Well Matt explained it in details on how the New toolbar reacts on a Error 404 error that may be encountered by the new toolbar.

According to Google Webmaster Blog the 3 site issues detected by Google Toolbar where it will make a suggestion are as follows

• 404 errors with default error pages
• DNS errors
• Connection failures

and the probable suggestions provided by the Google Toolbar will be as follows

• A link to the corrected URL
• A link to the cached version of the URL
• A link to the homepage or HTML site map of your site
• A link to a higher level folder
• A search within your site for keywords found in the URL
• An open Google search box

I have downloaded and tested it : [ Be Sure you have Internet Explorer 6 installed in your computer ]

I make a wrong URL to have an Error 404 but nothing unusual seems to happen. Did you test it ? Does it work for you as how it works from Matt ?

Here is some tips for hassle Free installation of the Update:

First removed the old version by downloading and running this program here and download the new Windows Live Installer via here. [exe 2.4 MB]. Thanks SL.

Hope you like it. Enjoy blogging

Just always remember to always improve your blogging methodology.