Easier Uploading
File Type Detection
Instead of needing to click on a specific upload icon based on your file type, now there’s just one. Once your file is uploaded, the appropriate fields will be displayed for entering information based on the file type.
Drag-and-Drop Media Uploader
Adding photos or other files to posts and pages just got easier. Drag files from your desktop and drop them into the uploader. Add one file at a time, or many at once.
More File Formats
7z and rar formats have been added to the list of allowed file types in the uploader.
Dashboard Design
Flyout Menus
Speed up navigating the dashboard and reduce repetitive clicking with new flyout submenus. As you hover over each main menu item in your dashboard navigation, the submenus will magically appear, providing single-click access to any dashboard screen.
Header + Admin Bar = Toolbar
To save space and increase efficiency, the admin bar and the old Dashboard header have been combined into one persistent toolbar. Hovering over the toolbar items will reveal sub-menus when available for quick access.
Responsive Design
Certain dashboard screens have been updated to look better at various sizes, including improved iPad/tablet support.
Help Tabs
The Help tabs located in the upper corner of the dashboard screens below your name have improved. Help content is broken into smaller sections for easier access, with links to relevant documentation and the support forums always visible.
New Feature Pointers
When new features are added or changes are made to WordPress you will now know all about it with new feature pointers explaining the change.
Post-update Changelog
From now on when you update WordPress, you’ll be brought to the post-update screen — also accessible any time from the W logo in the corner of the toolbar — to get an overview of what’s changed.
Dashboard Welcome
The dashboard home screen will have a Welcome area that displays when a new WordPress installation is accessed for the first time, prompting the site owner to complete various setup tasks. Once dismissed, this welcome can be accessed via the dashboard home screen options tab.
Content Tools
Better Co-Editing
Have you ever gone to edit a post after someone else has finished with it, only to get an alert that tells you the other person is still editing the post? From now on, you’ll only get that alert if another person is still on the editing screen — no more time lag.
Tumblr Importer
Go to Tools → Import to get the new Tumblr Importer, which maps your Tumblog posts to the matching WordPress post formats. Tip: Choose a theme designed to display post formats to get the greatest benefit from the importer.
For developers
Flexible Permalinks
You have more freedom when choosing a post permalink structure. Skip the date information or add a category slug without a performance penalty.
Post Slugs: Less Funky
Funky characters in post titles (e.g. curly quotes from a word processor) will no longer result in garbled post slugs.
jQuery and jQuery UI
WordPress now includes the entire jQuery UI stack and the latest version of jQuery: 1.7.1.
is_main_query()
This handy method will tell you if a WP_Query object is the main WordPress query or a secondary query.
WP_Screen API
WordPress has a nice new API for working with admin screens. Create rich screens, add help documentation, adapt to screen contexts, and more.
Editor API Overhaul
The new editor API automatically pulls in all the JS and CSS goodness for the editor. It even supports multiple editors on the same page.
The Google+1 buttons are appearing everywhere. You can +1 any website on the net, or perhaps even more pertinent you can +1 any website directly from the search results. Once you have given your +1 vote to a website then this can appear in your Google+ profile, much the same as a ‘Liked’ page appears in your Facebook profile.
Google Panda is the latest implementation by Google to improve the quality of search results. The main focus of the search engine software is to sieve out all of the trash content in the virtual world. Panda is striving to find quality links, working out which sites are genuinely popular and which sites have contrived their incoming links from disreputable directories or mirror content. Incorporating +1 into the search results is the first step towards humanising the SEO process.
