Wordpress is one of the most popular CMS (Content Management System) that powers many popular blogs and websites. The Wordpress engine is expecting a major update to version to 3.0 with the Beta 2 version released on May 6th. We are anticipating some exiting new changes that will significantly affect the performance and customization options. Here we discuss some of the new changes that will be the part of this update.

Firstly, the default theme is changed to “Twenty Ten” which was a much required feature. This theme presents a cleaner and bold look. Twenty Ten now allows custom header image from user uploads or included images that makes it easier to personalize. It also gives the capability to easily change the background color of theme. Wordpress 3.0 also brings a new menu management system which makes it easier to edit and add menus and place them as widgets on the website. This can be achieved by simple drag-and-drop of the widgets which earlier required some coding.

One of the most useful feature is “Multisite” which enables Wordpress 3.0 to manage multiple blogs/websites with distinct domain names from a single Wordpress installation. However it requires some advanced knowledge and coding skills for which it is not targeted at general blogs. A network of blogs which are run by a single company or individual can benefit from this feature.

The new CMS also provides the sites with their own URL shortener that is based on your own domain name. Thus there is no need to use third-party URL shorteners and reduce effort while keeping brand identity intact. Wordpress 3.0 also allows selecting custom username and password during installation instead of the automatically generated passwords which required changing afterwards. Another important feature is pre-defined Author Templates which can be applied to make the styling from different authors unique. The complete list of the new changes in Wordpress 3.0 can be read on Wordpress Codex.