Nintendo's maintenance  to the Wii Shop Channel earlier today seems to have been a sign of what was to come: A new update for the Wii. The update details what work was done to the Shop Channel, as well as what other changes owners can expect. The download roughly takes about 1 minute, and here's the skinny:

Wii Menu
- Keyboard functionality has been added (Internet Channel not compatible yet).
- The current time according to your system clock is now displayed on the Wii Menu.
- The latest news and weather highlights can now be seen from the Wii Menu (much like the Everybody Votes Channel shows you the most recent question).
- The daily playtime letter is now Wii white.
- Scrolling messages in the Message Board now uses a different sound.
- Address Book entries can now be shifted around using A+B but only to empty spaces.
- A new warning stating that modified Wii's may cease to function after adding a new firmware update.

Wii Shop Channel
- Keyboard functionality has been added.
- Titles you've downloaded can now be accessed on the main Shop page.
- New search options for the Wii Shop Channel:
      * You can sort games by genre or publisher and see the amount of titles in that category
      * You can now type in the full or partial name of the game you are looking for.
- Nintendo now recommends titles you should download, featuring the most popular titles and the most recent additons.
- Nintendo now lists for users the most popular titles based on the number of downloads (top 10).

In case you were wondering, Paper Mario, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Mario Kart 64, Super Mario World, & Super Mario 64 take the top six spots on the list as of today.

That's all I was able to notice. If you can add anything, please comment in the Fungi Forums!

Update: USB keyboard functionality has been added to the list. I just sent a message using my keyboard on the Wii and it worked perfectly!