WordPress, the popular blogging platform, has released the 3.0 version to the public today. Here's a list of the new updates and additions to WordPress 3.0.In my opinion the most important change with WordPress 3.0 (the "Thelonious" release) is the merge of the individual and multiple-user (MU) versions. The new functionality, called multi-site, will allow blog administrators to manage one or any number of blogs from one install. This will be awesome for me as I currently administer four WordPress blogs and keeping all of them updated and in sync takes a good amount of time and effort. Now I will be able to run all four blogs from one WordPress installation. My only concern with this new multi-site functionality is if a hacker is able to get into the site, they could potentially attack all of the blogs more easily than the current individual blog setup.

A new default blog template named Twenty Ten comes standard with WordPress 3.0. The new template replaces the old default template and features a refined look along with more customization options than before.

On the admin side, the look is brighter than the old version and a new theme API will allow developers to, "easily implement custom backgrounds, headers, shortlinks, menus (no more file editing), post types, and taxonomies." The new administration section also allows blog administrators the ability to update WordPress core files and plugins at the same time. You can create a short URL for new blog posts using your favorite URL shortener. The short URL can be shared on social networking services.

The only major security announcement is the ability to customize the main "admin" user. This has been one of the most popular ways for hackers to attack a WordPress blog so it's good to see that it's now easy to change the username versus the old method which involved editing the raw database.

All in all, there were 1,217 bug fixes and feature enhancements made to the new WordPress 3.0.

Here's a video showing some of the WordPress 3.0 updates: