The finalists for the Bloggies were announced today and we're very happy to see a large number of Movable Type users amonst the list:

Ain't Too Proud to Blog: New Weblog
All About George: Tagline
BobUpNDown.com: Canadian
Daily Sardonicism: Webcam
dollarshort.org: Design, New Weblog, Programming
Formica.ca: Canadian
Feral Living: European
Forty-Two: Webcam
Goluboy: Canadian
a.lifeuncommon.org: Design
Minid.net: Latin American
Movable Type: Web Application for Weblogs
Prolific.org: European, Programming
Slatch.com: Music
u2log.com: Music
What's New, Pussycat?: Australian/New Zealand, Best Kept-Secret
Wil Wheaton dot Net: Merchandise, American, Tagline, New Weblog, Blog of the Year

A personal thanks from Ben and myself to all that voted to nominate Movable Type for Best Web Application.

Good Luck, everyone!

Development on MT version 2.0 is going smoothly and we're looking at a early March release. Can you believe it's almost February?

A list of definite 2.0 features:

• Multiple category support: The ability to assign multiple categories per entry
• Multiple archive template per archive type
• Interface modifications, application navigation and icon improvements based on findings from professional usability testing
• Power edit screen: Apply title, category or author changes to multiple entries -- using one screen and all at once
• More sorting options for the MTEntries tag: alphabetical by title, most recently commented-on, ascending and descending chronologically
• Mail this entry
• IP banning for comments
• Support for execution as a mod_perl handler
• A number of bug fixes and stability improvements

After version 2.0 we'll be heading to Texas (driving from California!) for SXSW where we'll hopefully be able to promote our wares and take a break before resuming work on the the advanced version of the software.

Particularly exciting is the success we've already had in getting some of the MT advanced features working -- namely secure posting via email and FTP to remote host.

Thanks again for supporting Movable Type and if you're already using the software, please remember to credit and link back to this site. A donation is optional -- credit is not. We rely on word-of-mouth and those links as our main way of promoting the software.

Interested in using Movable Type but don't want to install the software yourself?

Sign-up for a pay installation.

Good news for those who use the default templates: We're adding a slew of new designs for the upcoming 1.4 release on Monday.

Finally! A default template you'll want to use on your page.