WordPress turned seven years old last month! I can’t believe it has been 7 years. To commemorate the anniversary, WordPress is leaping forward this month with the release of Version 3.0, nearly five years after the debut of 2.0. The biggest change is integration with the previously separate WordPress MU (Multi-User) variation, which allows multiple blogs to be operated from a single WordPress installation and database.

The new version abounds in other new features while retaining the user-friendliness that has set WordPress apart from open source alternatives Drupal and Joomla. So what is new and notable?

Multisite Networks

The most dramatic change in WordPress 3.0 is the ability to host multiple sites. Using one installation of WordPress 3.0, thousands of users can each have their own blogs under a common domain name. Most users of this configuration are large-scale entities that have previously relied on WordPress MU.

Plug-Ins and a New Theme

Bulk updating of plugins was introduced in a previous version of WordPress but was squirreled away under the misleading “Upgrade WordPress” menu item. Now plugins can be updated en masse from both the plugins page and the renamed “WordPress Updates” page, which lists available theme upgrades as well.

Historically, WordPress came with a boring default theme, and many users never bothered to adapt their blog to with a different look. The new default theme, “Twenty Ten,” is similarly clean and easy to use but includes the ability to easily add a new banner image and border colors. Minor updates, but much more user friendly.

Blogging

The basic act of writing a blog post has seen no overt overhaul. There are some renamed buttons and other minor tweaks, such as a sleeker interface for comparing changes between revisions of a blog post. Otherwise, the look and feel of the writing process is identical with the previous release, WordPress 2.9.2. WordPress 3.0 offers better micro-blogging (e.g. Twitter) integration with its new feature called Shortlink, which gives you the ability to generate branded short links (in a similar way as bit.ly) for sharing your posts and pages in social media.

Navigation Menu Management

The exciting menu management feature is one of the most anticipated and demanded features of WordPress end-users. This new feature will make it easy as pie for users to add new navigation menus in their WordPress-powered blogs and websites.  You will need no coding experience to modify your WordPress navigation: Just drag and drop menu items, and that’s it. You can add outgoing links, categories and pages in one single menu just by using the navigation menu’s management feature. This is an insanely awesome and powerful feature to make WordPress site management all the more easier for WordPress users.

Custom Post Types

Hidden from the standard user is the ability to create custom post types and tags. A typical WordPress post is an entry in a chronological blog, with tags that serve as keywords. With WordPress 3.0, it’s possible to create a database entry that represents not a blog post, but, for example, a film, with metadata that specifies the actors, director, film studio and release date. Custom post types is another highly-demanded feature by WordPress theme developers. This feature will give them a lot of flexibility while using WordPress as a fully-featured content management system. It will allow WordPress theme developers to create custom content types outside pages and posts. There were techniques to do this in the past, but not as robust and easy when compared to content management systems like Drupal. The potential applications for this feature are vast, such as creating a cross-referenced and searchable film database, or a calendar that tracks event venues and costs, without a specific plug-in required for each purpose. But such applications are not obvious, which is likely why custom post types are not available out of the box, requiring either a plug-in or familiarity with editing WordPress’s functions.php file.

Final Thoughts

It’s evident from all these changes that WordPress is definitely going on the right path of becoming a fully-featured publishing platform. There is always a room for improvement, but this extensive development in WordPress 3.0 shows the dedication of WordPress core developers and the WordPress community to the world’s most famous publishing platform.