Episode 6: Akismet rumors, lots of new and updated plug-ins, listener mail

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• Mike Adams joins Automattic to work on bbPress.
• WordPress.com is shopping for a 3rd datacenter.
• Akismet upgrade rumors.
• WordPress.com adds avatars, the ability to track your comments across any blog within the wordpress.com service, and the ability to publish your blog in other languages.
• Possibly an AdSense widget, so you too can earn a half a penny a day just like everybody else in the world besides Michael Hampton.
• The AdSense Sharing Revenue and Earnings System, which allows you to view your AdSense earnings and share impressions with your friends and co-authors.
• Disable the auto rebuild option if you use the Google sitemap plug-in.
• Use the Geotrack plug-in to plot your visitors on Google Maps.
• The SEO Title Tag plug-in allows you to override a page’s or a post’s title tag with a custom one you define, it reverses the order of the blog name and the title (giving more keyword prominence to the title instead of the blog name). Or you can drop the blog name altogether.
• Ultimate Tag Warrior version ∏.
• The FeedBurner plug-in has been reworked to no longer require modification of your blog’s .htaccess file.
• The Plain Text Plug-in strips out the HTML nasties that have a tendency to ruin a blog’s layout.
• Mike Bergman’s new WYSIWYG editor includes table editing, advanced image and horizontal rule support, search-and-replace, special characters, super- and subscripting, fonts, colors and styles.
• Yet Another Photo Blog and WordPress Galeria are two nice photoblog plug-ins.
• The Post Avatar plug-in. Adding an image is a simple as choosing one from a list directly below the Save button, then saving the post.
• The Search Meter plug-in tracks what your visitors search for on your blog.
• The coComment enhancement plug-in, which seamlessly integrates coComment functionality into your blog.
• The Happy Pals plug-in helps you keep current on your XFN relationships.
• wpplugins.org features plug-ins sorted by category, popularity and most recently updated.
• A cheat sheet for writing WordPress themes.
• Video tutorials covering WordPress-related topics.
• A comprehensive list of WordPress 2.x Rewrite rules.
• Sara Cormeny sounds off on WordPress.com charging to edit your own CSS.
• Christopher Luna scolds me for placing cross-promotionals at the end of the show.
• Kel educates us on listening to Podcasts on his TiVo.
• Alex Santos is just getting started using WordPress.

As always, if you have WordPress-related news or just want to tell us how we’re doing, please drop us a line.