The folks over at Automattic just released the stable 2.8 version of popular blogging platform WordPress. This site, along with a large percentage of blogs out there, runs on the WordPress platform and I can’t say enough about all the features and SEO-friendly options that it has built-in to the base version (not to mention all the free plugins and themes available on their site).

Over 790 bugs were fixed from the previous 2.7.1 version not to mention they claim it’s supposed to be a lot faster (that has yet to be seen). Some of the new features can be found under the Appearance section of the backend, from a re-designed widgets section to the addition of convenient “Activate, Preview and Delete” quick-links underneath each theme. If you’re trying to decide between a few themes or just like to keep a lot available, this will undoubtably save you a lot of time.

Some highlights of the updated features are:

• New drag-and-drop widgets admin interface and new widgets API
• Syntax highlighting and function lookup built into plugin and theme editors
• Browse the theme directory and install themes from the admin
• Allow the dashboard widgets to be arranged in up to four columns
• Allow configuring the number of items to show on management pages with an option in Screen Options
• Support timezones and automatic daylight savings time adjustment
• Support IIS 7.0 URL Rewrite Module
• Faster loading of admin pages via script compression and concatenation

So if you haven’t logged into the back-end of your own WordPress blog lately, now’s the time to do it and use their automatic upgrade feature! That or you can find the download page (as well as instructions for how to install or upgrade) here. You can also view the complete list of updates and bug fixes on their development site.

I know that I’m a few hours early for most of you but I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Years! Apparently Google wanted to get in on the celebration as they’ve just recently (sometime in the past 24 hours) updated the Google Toolbar PageRank. Don’t get too excited now kids, this isn’t that big of a news announcement….the Toolbar PageRank is considered by most to be outdated pretty much the moment that it updates. Bummed out? You shouldn’t be, it’s only one of hundreds of factors that Google takes into account in their ranking algorithm.

The entire crew over here at AddTo10.com would like to wish you and your loved ones a safe and happy NYE….. Happy New Year!

The Addicted To 1s and 0s team will be on vacation/haitus until January 10th but we hope you’ll come and visit us once we get back from a much needed vacation….cheers!

Here’s a new (err..somewhat new) feature for Gmail that has just been released via Google Labs, Free SMS messaging to any phone in the United States through it’s integrated chat feature.

To send a SMS message to one of your friends (or enemies, whichever you feel like reaching out to), just enter a phone number in the search box at the top of the chat window found in the bottom left hand corner of your Gmail interface and select “Send SMS.” Once you’ve entered in a phone number for a contact name, it is automatically saved, meaning you’ll only have to update phone numbers once.

Currently it’s only being tested on US-based cell phone carriers, but hopefully this will be expanded as the ‘kinks’ are worked out of the system.

They’re not the first online chat service to offer this type of free messaging, but hey, one more feature for those of us who use Gmail/Gchat regularly is always an added bonus!

Once you’ve added the SMS number, chats through the service appear in the same interface anyone familiar with the current Gmail chat service will recognize:

Google just released a new version to their stand-alone AdWords Editor application, making the most up-to-date version 6.5. This was rolled out simultaneously for both OS X and Windows XP/2000/Vista.

Some of the new features include Keyword utilities. Finally! Having to keep a browser open to the Google Keywords Tool is a pain, integrating it into the application will save a lot of time. They didn’t stop there though, in the new version of the AdWords Editor you can find a Keyword Multiplier, which combines lists of terms to form new keywords as well as a Keyword Expansion, which generates keyword ideas based on words or phrases (just like the web-based Keyword Tool). Now these tools will be great….. once I’m able to use them that is. I’ve installed the new version but after entering in my login information, it gives me an error saying that the application could not authenticate. This only occurs when trying to access the “Keyword Opportunities” section under the Tools menu.

Another key change is the new names for importing and exporting.

You can view the release notes here.

On the main page is a message from Chris Wilson, IE Platform Architect:

This release contains some great advances in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and layout, programming model, performance, reliability, usability and service integration. We are eager to ensure that the transition to Internet Explorer 8 is seamless for you and your audience, and to give you a head start on using many of the new features with your sites and services. We encourage you to test your sites and services, and our platform implementation, and give us feedback!”

One of the interesting new features they talk about is something called “Activities:”

These activities/services are supposedly going to be available to developers to tweak enabling 3rd parties to offer mini-web-apps to integrate within the browser. There are a few other “features” they highlight on the site, so go check it out if you have any interest.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Window XP SP2

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Windows Server 2003 SP2

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Windows Server 2003 SP2 x64 Edition and Windows XP SP2 Pro x64 Edition