Easier Uploading

File Type Detection
Instead of needing to click on a specific upload icon based on your file type, now there’s just one. Once your file is uploaded, the appropriate fields will be displayed for entering information based on the file type.

Drag-and-Drop Media Uploader
Adding photos or other files to posts and pages just got easier. Drag files from your desktop and drop them into the uploader. Add one file at a time, or many at once.

More File Formats
WordPress has added the rar and 7z file formats to the list of allowed file types in the uploader.

Dashboard Design

Flyout Menus
Speed up navigating the dashboard and reduce repetitive clicking with our new flyout submenus. As you hover over each main menu item in your dashboard navigation, the submenus will magically appear, providing single-click access to any dashboard screen.

Header + Admin Bar = Toolbar
To save space and increase efficiency, we’ve combined the admin bar and the old Dashboard header into one persistent toolbar. Hovering over the toolbar items will reveal submenus when available for quick access.

Responsive Design
Certain dashboard screens have been updated to look better at various sizes, including improved iPad/tablet support.

Help Tabs
The Help tabs located in the upper corner of the dashboard screens below your name have gotten a facelift. Help content is broken into smaller sections for easier access, with links to relevant documentation and the support forums always visible.

Feels Like the First Time

New Feature Pointers
When we add new features, move navigation, or do anything else with the dashboard that might throw you for a loop when you update your WordPress site, we’ll let you know about it with new feature pointers explaining the change.

Post-update Changelog
This screen! From now on when you update WordPress, you’ll be brought to this screen — also accessible any time from the W logo in the corner of the toolbar — to get an overview of what’s changed.

Dashboard Welcome
The dashboard home screen will have a Welcome area that displays when a new WordPress installation is accessed for the first time, prompting the site owner to complete various setup tasks. Once dismissed, this welcome can be accessed via the dashboard home screen options tab.

Content Tools

Better Co-Editing

Have you ever gone to edit a post after someone else has finished with it, only to get an alert that tells you the other person is still editing the post? From now on, you’ll only get that alert if another person is still on the editing screen — no more time lag.

Tumblr Importer
Want to import content from Tumblr to WordPress? No problem! Go to Tools → Import to get the new Tumblr Importer, which maps your Tumblog posts to the matching WordPress post formats. Tip: Choose a theme designed to display post formats to get the greatest benefit from the importer.

Widget Improvements
Changing themes often requires widget re-configuration based on the number and position of sidebars. Now if you change back to a previous theme, the widgets will automatically go back to how you had them arranged in that theme. Note: if you’ve added new widgets since the switch, you’ll need to rescue them from the Inactive Widgets area.

Under the Hood

Flexible Permalinks
You have more freedom when choosing a post permalink structure. Skip the date information or add a category slug without a performance penalty.

Post Slugs: Less Funky
Funky characters in post titles (e.g. curly quotes from a word processor) will no longer result in garbled post slugs.

jQuery and jQuery UI
WordPress now includes the entire jQuery UI stack and the latest version of jQuery: 1.7.1.

is_main_query()
This handy method will tell you if a WP_Query object is the main WordPress query or a secondary query.

WP_Screen API
WordPress has a nice new API for working with admin screens. Create rich screens, add help documentation, adapt to screen contexts, and more.

Editor API Overhaul
The new editor API automatically pulls in all the JS and CSS goodness for the editor. It even supports multiple editors on the same page.

To remain relevant in the world of mobile video, Adobe announced its new Flash Media Server 4.5 on Thursday. For the first time, Flash Media Server now enables same-source video delivery to both Apple iOS devices (iPod, iPad, iPhone) and Adobe Flash-compatible destinations.

The updated version of Flash Media Server delivers Flash content or repackages content for Apple’s mobile products and delivers the content without Flash (using HTTP Dynamic or HTTP Live Streaming). Adobe is hoping these changes to its Flash Media Server will continue to make it an appealing option for online publishers.

This is good news for website owners, since delivering video to all mobile devices is that much easier. I’d guess that this move might be too late for some publishers who have already moved to their own solutions for getting video to HTML5 friendly devices/browsers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Google seems to believe that Facebook has some shortcomings that they can fix by launching their own version that makes takes existing Google products social. The company certainly has a lot to work with, including Picasa, Gmail and Google Maps. Information and functions from all of these will be integrated into the Google+ experience so that you don’t have to sign into different services to share your photos and let your friends and family know what you’re up to.

Should Facebook and Zuckerberg be worried or will Google+ be the latest chapter of social networking fails by Google?

Stream

Each Google+ profile centers around the Stream, which is essentially the same thing as Facebook’s news feed and looks quite similar. The stream wrangles up all of your info and updates from your contacts and is constantly updated. The Stream will be joined by five core elements – Circles, Photos, Hangouts, Huddle and Sparks.

Circles

Google+ tries to make sharing online more like sharing in real life. In real life, you want to tell you friends what you did on Saturday night, but you don’t necessarily want your parents and co-workers viewing the details . You can keep your conversations separate by putting your contacts into ‘circles’ such as ‘Work’, ‘Friends’ and ‘Parents’. When you sort your friends, acquaintances and other contacts into Circles, no one else knows how they’ve been grouped. Google will show other Google+ users who you’ve put into your Circles, as well as who has put you into their Circles, but it won’t reveal how you’ve characterized those Circles and how they’re titled.

Photos

Google+ uses ‘Instant Upload’ to free your photos and videos from being trapped on your mobile device and automatically uploads them to a private album on Google+. All you have to do is decide who to share them with.

Hangouts

With Hangouts, you can let your specific contacts (or entire circles) know you’re hanging out and then see who virtually drops by for a face-to-face-to-face video chat. It’s basically video calling, but you can include more than two people in each chat.

Huddle

When you are trying to arrange an informal event with some friends by having several different text conversations with a number of friends, it can become long-winded and confusing. The idea behind Huddle is that you can turn all these exchanges into one big group chat to save you time. This certainly has the potential to be a very useful addition to the Google+ mobile offering.

Sparks

Sparks help you get stuff you are interested in fed to you on a regular basis. This feature reminds me a bit of Squidoo’s lenses. Basically, Sparks will send you stuff you’re interested in, so you don’t have to find it yourself.

Summary

Google+ looks good and the new features, especially circles, could just make the difference between it being a Facebook killer or another Google social networking failure. Whether Google+ is better than Facebook might not be as important as the question do we really need another social network, even if it gives us more control over how and what we share.

I’m seeing quite a few of the early adopters and techies I know on Google+ already, but getting regular Facebook users to make the switch isn’t going to be easy. Google+ just might have a chance to take a swing at Facebook with strong ties to Android mobile devices and being the new kid on the block. The history of social networking already has its ghost towns of Friendster and MySpace, but competition is a good thing and I hope Facebook’s monopoly will end.

PHP and MySQL

As of WordPress 3.2, you’ll need to be running PHP 5.2.4 and MySQL 5.0. The percentage of people running older versions of PHP and MySQL is relatively low. Most of the major hosts already default to these or newer versions, but there are some exceptions.

To find out if you have the latest version of PHP and MySQL:

• Contol Panel – Log into your hosting account panel and check to see which versions you are running, if you’re still on an older version, it should be as simple as changing a dropdown menu and clicking Save to get up to date
• Plugin – You can find out if you’re ready for WordPress 3.2 with the Health Check plugin. In your dashboard, go to Plugins → Add New and search for “health check” (it should be the first result). Install it, activate it, and it will tell you if you need to update anything.
• Tech Support – Contact your host’s customer service and ask them to confirm which version of PHP and MySQL you are running and to ask them to or walk you through how to upgrade your account. If your host can’t update to these versions, it might be time to look for a new host.
• Contact Us – We’re happy to check to see if your hosting is up to the task of upgrading to WordPress 3.2 and we’ll even backup and upgrade your site for you.

Internet Explorer 6 and Outdated Browsers

WordPress 3.2 is dropping support for Internet Explorer 6, a 10-years-old outdated browser that even Microsoft is ready to leave behind. Why? Because as web technology improves, so does WordPress and to take advantage of these improvements old, out-of-date browsers need to be left behind.

If your browser is out of date, you’ll see a friendly orangey-yellow box in your dashboard letting you know you a newer version is available (which you can dismiss, of course). If you’re using IE6, though, the box will be red, and your dashboard will not function properly. If you’re stuck on IE6 because the computer you use is maintained by a business, library, school, or the like, and you are not able to download a newer browser, here’s a sample email you can use to ask your boss/administrator/IT guys to update the browser.

Hi there. The computer I use at [where you use the computer] is equipped with an out-of-date web browser. Internet Explorer 6 was created 10 years ago, before modern web standards, and does not support modern web applications. More and more sites and applications are dropping support for IE6, including the new version of WordPress. Even Microsoft, the makers of IE6, are counting down until IE6 goes the way of the dinosaur (see http://www.ie6countdown.com/ for more information). Can you please install an updated version of IE or any modern browser (see http://browsehappy.com for more information) on the available computers? Thank you very much.

In many cases it comes down to the working relationship between the designer and the client. I’ve had success working with both novice clients who have never worked on a website and experienced clients who’ve been through the process a dozen times. I think the path to success often comes from a client understanding the following:

1. Don’t Rush (Unless You Have To)

I’ve worked on many websites where we had to work backward from an important marketing date. But on many projects, I’ve had clients who just need to have their site ASAP!!! Rushing a project can have a huge impact on the quality of design. In many cases, I’ve even rushed to complete a design and the client hasn’t even started their website copy. Producing something great takes time for the designer and the client. Designers need time to be able to creatively solve design challenges. Clients (especially small business owners) need time to figure out how they want to communicate what their business is.

Don’t be afraid to take your time to figure it out the first time. Nobody wants to be completely revamping a website after a couple of months because it doesn’t speak to your visitors.

2. Be Involved from the Start

Web designers are often guilty of going off to their dark little caves to work in secrecy on your project. They like to take their notes and go away to work on the design until they are ready to present the final work. In many cases this approach leads to problems, but it comes from past experience with website owners who overwork a design.

A better approach is for you and the designer to work together from the start. You are the expert on your business. A web designer needs you to help them understand your business, its customers and what goals you have for your website.

You should be involved in seeing draft sketches, wireframes, designs and test sites. When the web design reaches its final state, it will be is something that you are both happy with. By being involved in the design process from the start, your project can avoid having design crushing feedback arriving at the end of the design phase.

3. Clearly Define Your Audience

Clearly communicate to your web designer who is the audience of your website. You’ll need to really think about who is your customer today and tomorrow. It might be a good idea to create detailed customer profiles based on demographics, purchasing habits and interests. You can even assign names to these profiles to really make them come alive.

If the web designer does not fully understand the target audience they could easily present the entire site in the wrong way. For example, if the website is for an older audience it might need to have a simple layout structure and larger font. If the audience is a group of experienced website users, then social media links and integration will be important.

4. Focus on Problems, We’ll Figure out the Solution

I’ve been in early talks with clients where they specifically tell me how to design the site or what technology to use. I’ve also seen half completed projects where a client will see a problem (e.g. that the colour scheme is not appropriate for his audience) and tell the designer how things should be changed (e.g. change from pink to blue).

Web designers are experts at creating websites, that’s why your hired them. Instead of telling your designer exactly what to do and how to do it, communicate the problem you are trying to solve (for example: people are not completing our newsletter sign up form). By asking the designer to come up with the solution, you’ll leverage years of their experience solving problems for other website owners.

5. Don’t Say Goodbye

Many website owners hire a web designer to redesign their website and then walk away. It is important for someone to be responsible for continually adding content and coming up with new ways to reach customers. You’ve put an investment of time and money into your new website, why would you walk away and never look at it again. You’ve planting an awesome garden – make sure you someone is gardening the website.

If you are hands off and want the designer to take care of your site, set-up a follow-up meeting every 3-6 months. If you have a content management system, use it often. Either way, don’t ignore the site until it’s been 3 years and it’s time to completely start over and rebuild your out of date website.