WSUS 3.0 will be the next iteration of Update Services and the beta is slated for 3rd qtr this year (CY). Craig Marl [MSFT] has added some light on the improvements on microsoft.public.windows.server.update_services. Quoting from the Craig's post.
NEW MMC UI:
For 3.0 we're adding a new MMC UI that allows us to do a lot more than the old web UI, one of these things is much richer views.
NEW Custom Views:
In 3.0 you'll be able to define custom views based on products, classifications, sync date, and the groups the updates are approved for. This should make it much easier to create views specifically for test to production scenarios - you'll be able to have views specific to your test deployments.
NEW Filtering:
You can also filter the views based on approvals and the status on your clients; so you can see approved updates with failures, and with a single click see approved updates that are still needed etc.
Reducing the complexity around approving for detection:
Basically in 3.0 the whole notion of approved for detection goes away - so we'll always have stats on which updates are needed etc. This allows us to build views where you can see which updates are unapproved & needed by clients which should help make it simpler to decide which updates to test 1st.
NEW Nested Target Groups:
One other thing I'll mention is that we're beefing up targeting significantly for 3.0 - we'll allow nested target groups. So you'll have much more flexibility in how you organize your groups, and much improved inheritance semantics.
Go ahead and add your WSUS-Wishes on http://www.wsuswiki.com/WishList.
***UPDATE - 4/15/2006: Some more wishes answered on WIKI.***
Purge Content
http://wsus.editme.com/WishlistPurgeContent
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Email Notification
http://wsus.editme.com/EmailNotification
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Show Superceded
http://wsus.editme.com/ShowSuperceded
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Mandatory Updates
http://wsus.editme.com/MandatoryUpdates
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Client Troubleshooting Tools Needed
http://wsus.editme.com/ClientTroubleshootingTools
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Download Updates By Schedule
http://wsus.editme.com/DownloadUpdatesBySchedule
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Report By Computer Instead Of By Update
http://wsus.editme.com/ReportByComputerInsteadOfByUpdate
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WSUS Integration With AD
http://wsus.editme.com/WSUSIntegrateWithAD
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***UPDATE - 4/16/2006 - I am born today (April, 16 1981)***
NEW Reporter User:
We'll have support for a reporters user role. They'll get read only access for the server to generate reports.