Blog Tech Guy

Just a quick note to those of you wanting to upgrade to Wordpress 2.6. From my testing and reading there are a few issues with some popular plugins not working.

The first is the Google Analytics plugin. You will need to install the latest version, then on the Google Analytics option page you will need to click Reset all settings at the bottom, and then re-enter your UA number and select the options you require. If you use the robots meta plugin and RSS Footer plugin from the same author you will need to do a similar thing.

Secondly the Unique Blog Designs Block Ad plugin does not currently work. A fix will be available very shortly so just hang on a few days if you use this plugin and want to upgrade.

Third, another popular plugin, Popularity Contest, has issues. A fix can be found here.

Look here for a further list of plugins that don’t work with Wordpress 2.6.

Please let me know if you would like to upgrade and have any of these plugins installed.

It’s out and so far during testing I’m impressed. However I will be testing it some more before recommending to all my clients. A quick video below shows you some of the new features.

Wordpress 2.6 is due shortly. I doubt that it will be released on time, though that never really bothers me as I would rather it works than be rushed out prematurely just to hit an artificial deadline.

For those who are signed up to my Monthly Maintenance Package, they will get upgraded by me as part of this.

A couple of interesting articles about the new version are available. Weblog Tools Collection talks about:
- Post revisioning.
- Tumbling your posts.
- Admin interface speed improvements (by the use of Google Gears).
- (De)Activating plugins in bulk.
- Other technical changes.

Technosailor also goes into detail about:
- Post revisioning.
- Google Gears.
- Avatar Options.
- Press This! feature.
- More technical details.

Very interesting for when you blog is upgraded and you think “I wonder what this does?”. Just remember, you should be making at least weekly backups of your blog database, and more for mission critical blogs. And aren’t they all critcial?!

Just a quick note, if you use Firefox, there is a new release of a content suggestion plugin for the Write screen in Wordpress (and Typepad and Blogger). Note that this is a plugin for Firefox and NOT a Wordpress plugin, but does add functionality to Wordpress. More info can be found at Zemanta.

It’s an Alpha release which means it is early testing code, but if you want to give it a try, then here’s a demo video below. If you do try it, please let me know what you think!

[Via: Weblog Tools Collection]