Automatic, the parent company of popular blogging platform WordPress, has acquired WP plug-in series BuddyPress to mark its ambitious move to social networking and perhaps challenge dominance players like MySpace and Facebook.

BuddyPress is a suite of plugins that will completely transform Wordpress MU into a fully functional social network platform. Thanks to its $29.5 million funding raised in January 2008, it has gained some flexibility to explore different areas to sustain its continued growth. WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg explains the rationale for this acquisition:

It’s clear that the future is social. Connections are key. WordPress MU is a platform which has shown itself to be able to operate at Internet-scale and with BuddyPress we can make it friendlier. Someday, perhaps, the world will have a truly Free and Open Source alternative to the walled gardens and open-only-in-API platforms that currently dominate our social landscape.

This is an opportune time to partake in the social networking market for niche sites are expected to boom in the years to come.

via ReadWriteWeb

Answers Corporation, creators of the leading answer engine offering Answers.com and WikiAnswers.com, today announced a partnership with Automattic, Inc., owners of the popular WordPress.com blogging service.

Bloggers using WordPress.com as their blogging platform will be offered an integrated tool to easily link words in their posts to definitions and explanations from Answers.com. The service will also be available as a plug-in for users of the more customizable Wordpress.org service.

“The goal of the integration is to help the blogger maintain the flow of his or her writing, without needing to pause to provide explanations inside the text. It’s also a quick and simple way to keep readers from the distractions that cause them to leave, in search of an explanation for an unfamiliar reference,” explained Answers Chairman and CEO Bob Rosenschein.

Performancing announced the release of Estranged, its Wordpress theme for October.

Created by Thord Daniel Hedengren and produced by TFS Travel Journal, Estranged is a two-column theme that features large, standout headers, and easy-to read body and link text. The color scheme involves subtle shades of grey and red, with a bit of orange, and these add to that simple yet eye-catching look. The proportions of the columns and the headers are just right, making ample use of the rule of thirds popular among those in the visual arts. Contrast is just right–having adequate readability, but not at the cost of being too much of a glare. The theme also makes adequate use of white space, so the blog doesn’t look cramped.

Here’s a preview of Estranged.

Editor’s Note: Performancing is owned by Splashpress Media, the company behind 901am.com

Performancing announced the release of The News Theme for Wordpress. The theme mimics the look and feel of a print magazine and newspaper. The theme was authored by Design Disease and produced by Soccerlens in cooperation with Performancing. Here is a preview of the theme and a download link.

Editor’s note: Performancing is owned by Splashpress Media, and so are we.

On the lighter side of things, Wordpress recently announced the launch of their latest apparel — the new red Wordpress T-shirts, which are now available for purchase outside of the U.S., and anywhere in the world.

Made of high-quality American Apparel material, these limited edition Wordpress T-shirts are screen-printed and are available for both men and women. You can purchase them from Wordpress’ official online shop while stocks last. Grab one for yourself now!

I, however, join some people in asking: why just red? I hope the shirts become available in pink, too.

Barely a week since the launch of version 3.0 of Wordpress Theme Viewer and already, drastic changes concerning cleaning up its database have garnered both applause for a job well done, as well as questions regarding their criteria for keeping and dispatching themes.

This latest development in the popular wordpress theme database aimed to fix site problems which include slow filter and search system, theme quality concerns, and abusive and ethical problems such as theme rip-offs, staged rating and downloading system, and embedded spammy links, as explained here.

Hundreds of themes with embedded links to spam sites were taken out of the database, as well as sponsored themes that were mostly made for marketing and linkbuilding purposes. In this regard, some theme authors were also suspended, and were requested to correct and clean up their codes if they want to resubmit their themes for re-inclusion.

Signing up and uploading themes is suspended at the moment until further notice.

WordCamp, a 2-day conference for WordPress users and developers kicks off today in San Francisco. The first day will focus on how to be a better blogger, while tomorrow will be on the development and future of WordPress. The following are expected to attend the conference… More →

Cutline Theme for Wordpress today announced the release of its three-column version by Brian Gardner. Cutline, originally designed by Chris Pearson, is one of the most popular Wordpress themes.

Cutline is owned by Splashpress Media, the same company that publishes 901am.com

One of the big things with Safari 3, now available on Windows as well as we’ve reported previously, is that it should work better with Google Apps. Apple and Google are lovers nowadays and the former makes money from the search box delivered by the latter.

Yes, that is the way to make money on free browsers. Did you think they did it for the fun of it?

I’ve been running Safari 3 for over a week now and I’m satisfied. It’s a lot faster than Firefox on Mac, but it does have its issues. Like the Wordpress editor, as reported, and Gmail. Yes, Gmail - while the visual editor now works as intended it often hangs when sending, forcing you to stop the transfer and resend. Then it usually works. Most other Google Apps seems to work though, but there may be more issues.

Does Safari 3 work for you? Also, does anyone besides Mac folk actually run it?

CBS Interactive announced that it is partnering with leading community-building websites and social application providers to add greater user functionality to the CBS Audience Network. The announcement includes deals with new companies as well as expanded relationships with existing CBS Audience Network partners. Through these online properties and social application providers, users can easily incorporate CBS clips into their profiles, websites, blogs, widgets, wikis, and community pages. This enables them to discover and personalize CBS content and to use it to communicate with others. At the same time, CBS gains promotional value online while learning about its audience.

“Today, we are taking the CBS Audience Network directly to the user,” said Quincy Smith, President, CBS Interactive. “In launching the CBS Audience Network we solidified our position as the most widely distributed professional content provider on the Web thanks to our great video distribution partners. We now want to empower our audience to be creative and deepen their experience with our content by allowing them to share and embed CBS-provided clips to their blogs, wikis, widgets, community sites and whatever else gets thrown our way. We are delighted to have so many quality partners — established and start ups — helping to bring CBS content to the online community.”

New online partners adding increased functionality to CBS Audience Network include: Automattic, Clearspring, DAVE Networks, Goowy Media, Meebo, MeeVee, MuseStorm, Ning, RockYou!, Slide, VideoEgg, Voxant, and vSocial. More →