If you like this post, please subscribe to our RSS feed to read our new posts every day.
Matt and company have announced that WordPress.com now officially supports Google Gears. Gears is an extension which works with the browser to enhance web based applications. It’s known for creating local database and file storage, while running javascript in the background to update that content without slowing down the browser.
Gears support in WordPress.com means you will be able to store all images and other web page components of the WordPress administration panel locally which will speed up access to those files while reducing unnecessary web traffic. To enable this feature, click on the TURBO link in the WP.COM dashboard area. This will be located in the upper right portion of the screen. You will need to have the GEARS extension installed before you will be able to take advantage of this new feature.
[EDIT] Rundown on Fool’s Wisdom of Google Gears Privacy concerned raised. Thanks Lloyd!
The guys and gals at Automattic have published their Google Summer Of Code 2008 Codex Article which highlights various mentors and ideas. For those of you who don’t know what the Google Summer Of Code Project is all about, here is a brief intro.
Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source projects. Google will be working with a several open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund several projects over a three month period. Historically, the program has brought together over 1,500 students with over 130 open source projects to create millions of lines of code. The program, which kicked off in 2005, is now in its fourth year. If are feeling nostalgic or are interested in learning more about the projects we have worked with in the past, check out the 2006 and 2007 program pages.
There are some big names on the mentor list such as Matt Mullenweg, Lloyd Budd, Joseph Scott and newly acquired Andy Peatling with Matt taking on the double duty of being the Mentor’s Mentor. Mentors act as administrators over a particular idea or project that is undertaken by a student.
Some of the ideas that have been proposed for this years GSOC include:
- Performance
- XML-RPC
- Web Forums Export/Import Standard and Tools
- WordPress Import/Export Tuning
- Trac Social Bug Tracking development
- Integrated Caching Solutions
- XHTML validation framework, which helps ensure that all output of WP (including templates) produces valid HTML
- Extending the search system to support more advanced search syntax, relevance, and external APIs like Google or Yahoo’s.
- Batch editing of post and attachment attributes such as categories, tags, author.
As you can see, there is good range of projects for the aspiring coder to participate in. If you are looking to hone your skills and are looking for a challenge, this is a good way for you to test your knowledge.
If you would like to see what was worked on in the previous GSoC, check out the WordPress SOC 2007 Google Group or the article within the Codex.
AdSense and image placement We ask that publishers not line up images and ads in a way that suggests a relationship between the images and the ads. If your visitors believe that the images and the ads are directly associated, or that the advertiser is offering the exact item found in the neighboring image, they may click the ad expecting to find something that isn’t actually being offered. That’s not a good experience for users or advertisers. This is important for many AdSense publishers. From the examples that have been provided, if you are using a plugin like AdSense Beautifier, you might be violating Google’s AdSense policies and might want to look into removing the plugin.
New referrals for Google Pack and Picasa you can now refer your users to Google Pack and Picasa. You’ll earn up to $2 for each time a user installs Pack and up to $1 for each Picasa install. Google really wants to get into your computer. I have not installed Google Pack (and do not intend to do so) but for those without virus protection, Google does seem to offer a 6 month subscription to Norton Antivirus 2005. Are you installing Google Pack?
Obviously Powered by 
