Month: December 2009

WordPress 2.9 Released

Version 2.9 of WordPress was released on Saturday. The new version includes a trash feature, a built-in image editor, plugin compatibility checking, and support for the embedding content using the oEmbed standard. With trash feature posts and comments that are deleted will be placed in a trash folder instead being completely deleted. The image editor allows images to be  cropped, edited, rotated, flipped, and scaled and the post announcing the new version indicated that this is the first of “many planned media-handling improvements”. To help the users planning to upgrade to newer versions, WordPress will now present data compiled from other users as to whether installed plugins are compatible with the new version. Support for oEmbed standard allows for embedding of images, video, and other content by pasting an URL into a post. The standard is supported by YouTube, Flickr, Hulu, Scribd, PollDaddy and other websites.

The new version requires that your server run MySQL 4.1.2 or higher, previously versions only required 4.0 or higher. WordPress will check if the server has a supported version of MySQL during the auto upgrade process.

A full lists of changes in 2.8 is available at the WordPress Codex.

Google Expands Personalized Search Results to All Users

For several years Google has provided users signed into a Google account the option of receiving search results that have customized based on their previous search queries. On Friday Google announced that it will expand Personalized Search to all users. With Personalized Search, Google customizes search results in attempt to show results that are the most relevant to a user’s query when there query has multiple meanings. It will also show websites that the user frequently clicks on in search result higher in the search results. For users not signed into a Google account the customized results will be based on the searches linked with a web browser cookie. This means that a multiple users using the same web browser will receive customized results based on a combination of all users’ searches and users using multiple devices will receive different customized results on each device. The customization is based on up to the last 180 days of searches.

Yahoo and Microsoft Finalize Search Pact

Yahoo and Microsoft have finalized their agreement that will have Microsoft provide the search results and advertising for Yahoo Search. The definitive agreement was originally scheduled to be completed in late October and was delayed while details were worked out. The pact will still need to receive regulatory approval before it can begin which the companies said that they hope will occur in early 2010.