A couple weeks ago WordPress released version 2.3. I was hesitant to upgrade at first… like most major upgrades just wanted to let others go at it first and see what they had to say. I did want to upgrade though because I wanted to finish my other plugins on my site for most commented post, latest q&a, and other new stuff I am working on and I didnt want to do that only to have them break if they changed the functions on me.
I really like the way tags and categories work now. I have always had about 90% of the posts in here in 1 category… shoemoney, just because I did not think there needed to be other categories.
Also my theme seems to be good to go.
Now here is the thing I think most interesting about this version of WordPress. They have gotten off the Technorati bandwagon and now use Google Blog Search to see backlinks.
I will be honest. I originally found Technorati because of WordPress and as I said before something like WordPress could really tip the scales in favor of another blog search. I think its sad that Technorati has dropped the ball when they had such a oppourtunity once such a huge margin share.
IMO this is part of Matt and wordpress gangs “good will moves” to try to score a AdSense deal on wordpress.com. WordPress has been bowing down to Googles whims about paid links and sponsored themes and I think this is one more step to get them closer to Google Gold via Premium AdSense Deal on wordpress.com
Maybe I am wrong… just my opinion.
Anyway WordPress 2.3 seems solid, great job on it.
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2415 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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I’ll wait to upgrade my WP blogs. I would love to see Adsense available to my WP hosted blogs.
Sorry, but I think you’re wrong. I think they just realize – like all of us do – that technorati is a crappy way to monitor backlinks. Google blog search picks up new blogs WAY faster and indexes far more efficiently.
Well, it’s probbaly a little of both. Adsense premium on wordpress.com would be an awesome coup and it’s not surprising they’d bend a little (esp. with technorati not being all that great) to get a lot.
The updates are so often that it looks for me who is not using it that it is still in the beginning or unsecure.
2.3 is pretty solid though google blog search showing your own posts in incoming links is a bit annoying
I am always a litle scared to update too when the version I have is working fine, think I will still hold off a little bit, since right now I have only a few wordpress blogs anyway.
you and every spammer
I’m liking 2.3 – but wish they would fix the wysiwyg
I just updated too. But I liked the technorati Linking widget more.
Ive never been a fan of technorati, and I think it has been overemphasized in the blogging world for too long now.
I have upgraded and I like it. I need to test the technorati widget too. But I think technorati is a bit wee overrated.
There was a lot of prob with the plugins when I upgraded. Many didn’t work and had to be disabled. Other than that, I don’t see a lot of different in the new version.
Would you suggest upgrading now or holding off a bit? How are the 2.2 plugins holding up with the new version?
I had zero problems with plugins. The only plugins I use though are akismet, democracy, digg, brians threaded comments
Just installed the new version also. The new widgets function is pretty cool and makes organising the sidebar nice and easy. Is your theme compatible Shoe ?
actually widgets came out a long time before 2.3 and no i dont use them
I have to agree here. Widgets came out at 2.2. Maybe your theme was broken or something?
By the way, the theme on here seems a bit broken, the bio tab is below where it should be and the footer is pretty messed up.
i’m putting off my upgrade as i’ve alot of blogs & it seems the plugins i used is no more supported & not compatible
i’m abit hesistant to upgrade but i want to try the new tag … sounds fun
i’ve 19 blogs btw … haha
the footer has been messed for a bit… was going to fix this weekend if I find the time
The bio button should now be fixed I was adding a link for the forums
Technorati is gonna be pissed. I think they already anchored their name in, so I don’t know if it will kill them, but it was obvious that WP was the one who launched their name.
Sorry about the self promotion here, Shoe, but just to let everyone know I wrote a plugin that adds Technorati Links back onto the Dashboard. I know a lot of people despise Google Blog Search, like me. It’s far too innaccurate.
Sorry about the self promotion here, Shoe, but just to let everyone know I wrote a plugin that adds Technorati Links back onto the Dashboard. I know a lot of people despise Google Blog Search, like me. It’s far too innaccurate.
You can download it here, in case you’re interested in it.
That’s a shame – I was just starting to get used to Technorati and my rank was improving. In the past, even though I’ve had what I thought were good backlinks, google just seemed to ignore them.
WordPress didn’t come out last week BTW. I do agree it’s solid though. I’ve had no issues.
Why don’t you ?
Just upgraded and putting up a new theme. Solid so far.
to bad fro technorati…. but it is their own fault… got to take advantage of the the goods while you can and obviously technorati is on the downward spiral…
no need… but I think i am a little more advanced technically then most wordpress users…
Definetly bad news for technorati
It will be interesting to see how this affects Technorati, but what might be more important is how it affects backlinks. I don’t think there will be a big change, but there’s potential.
Only jumped on board with Wordpress in the days leading up to 2.3 being released. Love it so far.
No I just havent used wordpress for a while so havent seen any of the new features. Widgets was the one that impressed me most.
If WP is making the concession to get AdSense on board, can you blame them? That would yield major $ for them… and it’s not like the people using WP are really going to care about it at all. Technorati, Google Blogs… it’s all the same.
Anyone else notice that the theme here is actually a bit messed up right now?
Hey Jeremy,
First time commenting here.. Although, I have been reading your blog for some time now. It is sad to see Technorati take a hit like that… I haven’t invested a lot of time into researching what has been going on with Technorati. But just from a comment perspective, I can see huge changes for the bad. I don’t know why either… I really love Technorati and at one point in time would use them more the Google Blogsearch.
This whole situation reminds me of back in the day when Yahoo ruled the day…
I think WordPress switched over because Google Blog Search actually detects more incoming links than Technorati does. Besides, Technorati is only incoming links from Blogs, isn’t it?
Oh, and Google Blog Search is faster than Technorati.
Very interesting and insightful comments as always Shoemoney!
Technorati actually does a better job than Google when it comes to reporting back links. At least with my blog it does.
I think WP has released new versions quite quickly. I wonder by the time people start upgrading all their blogs to 2.3 version 2.4 will be out.
I wonder fantastico has not upgraded 2.3 till now…it quite easy to upgrade through fantastico as the risk of loosing the files is quite low …
nobody can fix wysiwyg
Thanks for the update. I’ll have to try and download the new version and see how it works.
Just use straight html its easier.
Thank you for the plugin mr. steele, I will definently be using your plugin at least until they fix google blog search.
I haven’t looked in deeper in the new version of wordpress but glad to know that the improvement is about “Google Blog Search to see backlinks” and dropped technorati. I think it’s time to make another upgrade of my wordpress. Thanks for the info Jeremy.
Technorati does a FAR FAR better job of actually showing backlinks to my blog. The google blogsearch incoming links section of Wordpress 2.3 is practically worthless.
I might be reading this wrong, I am a bit dislexic but is Shoemoney here preporting that potentially there are intrinsuic links between WP and Google being formed here. I don’t mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist here but for a while now I have been questioning “Why is it the blogs punch above their weight in Google”. I give Google a LOT of credit, they are a huge corporate with a plethora of intelligence, I truelly beleive that they make very little mistakes and that potentially things which happen are engineered to some degree.
What are you comparing ? Google’s “site:” operator just shows a random amount of random back links. Just about anything is better than that
Yea i already mentioned it a few comments up. Shoe said he was aware of the footer problem.
Time to get on the wagon.
To be, or not to be. Wordpress is certainly an excellent blogging tool – will tentatively upgrade once I’ve found a decent theme.
Thank goodness though; as I’ve always had poor success with simply USING Technocrappy. They have so much potential as a company, and their site is horrible in so many ways.
i wasnt aware of that since i havent upgraded yet. still afraid to.
Why? Not all wordpress.com members are spammers
Justin I agree with you about technorati, because technorati not only monitor links (is ok) but they monitor when link is written in any post. Oh by the way, yahoo is doing the same thing…
I prefer to wait till the next version (2.3.1) it will be soon for sure, that is normal in a web-tool. The first version will get tons of bugs, but the good thing that wordpress has that they released every week (before 1 month to release the main version) the beta version so that can help a lot.
what plugins didn’t work?
I don’t use them as well.
Thats not right … i have seen some people use WP blogs for very nice informative blogs… and who will not like to make some extra $$ from their blog ??
For backlinks yahoo ROCKS !!
I haven’t upgraded to 2.3 yet… I wanted to wait for the next upgrade since I just upgraded just before the new upgrade.
Nice insight for us though.
Cheers,
Carlo Selorio
Oh wow, I really enjoyed the Technorati over Google Blog Search… well…I am stickin’ with 2.2 since the new tag function is annoying too.
2.3 is a nice upgrade ~ tags are a worthwhile core addition, but be cautious about upgrading as most plugins that directly address the WP database will break due to the fundamental changes to the db schema.
I’m not too happy about WP potentially adding Google ads to WP domains … as a plugin developer they’ll be cashing in on my work … wonder how they’ll handle it, if and when it happens?
Still haven’t upgraded to 2.3
I have noticed that my Technorati “reactions” have dropped recently, but I thought that was a result from the change I made in posting news items. Maybe the Wordpress upgrade also played a role in that drop. As far as the latest Wordpress version goes, I haven’t had any issues with the software, but then again, my website is a bit “simple.”
I always wait a few months to upgrade.
Adsense indeed has resurrected!
We’ve earned over a million dollars from Adsense in our first 3 months at it, and now we are surfacing from underground.
http://www.adsenseresurrected.com
P.S. commenting on blogs seems to bring free high quality traffic.
Works like a charm. Thanks. For some reazon there is no any backlinks for me from Google Blog Search on the Dashboard.
As a noob, I didnt even look at Technorati until Shoe mentioned it in some post. When I go their website, It really doesnt seem that great to me. Except for the top blog list that’s about all I really pay attention to.
I tried to upgrade few days ago and get mesh up. The db scheme change drastically, we even cant use %category% tag anymore
I agree
Same here i totally agree with you there. The db has changed alot.
That sucks! I like technorati.
Upgrading is for you to try out new technology. But if you are not confident for that then hold for another 2-3 months as there will always be bugs when they are initally release.
Odd – suddenly today, after a 2.32 upgrade, there is NO backlink tool at all?
thanks for the article
thanks for the article.
thanks for the article.
Nowadays too many people are interested in webcomics. It’s the advantage of the Internet.
thanks for the article.
I’ll wait to upgrade my WP blogs. I would love to see Adsense available to my WP hosted blogs.