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Improved Battle.net In-Game Functionality
Any quote from Blizzard clearly states that while they won't talk much about Battle.net 2.0, we will be blown away or be very impressed. It's a given that all current features for Battle.net will be included - and improved! Blizzard has said they have learned a lot from WoW on infrastructure, and features from WoW will definitely also be seen. So Battlenet 2.0 WILL feature:

* Excellent Ping
* Channels and Chat in-game
* Ladders and Rankings, secured against cheating.
* Extended stats, with possibility to see who D/C etc
* AMM-type Matchmaking
* Avatars, Images and Icons to represent yourself
* Diablo III Hardcore mode
* Friends/Ignore Lists with advanced management (see accounts below)
* Clan Support
* Automated Tournaments

As an example, we just found out that Diablo III players will possibly deal with all their trading directly by whispers in the new network. With this in mind, we can expect many simple and useful features directly in the system.


Achievements
Just like in WoW, Achievements will be added to Diablo III and StarCraft II. Achievements such as "Win 100 StarCraft II games", or "Level your character to 100" are the new way of playing online and will be recorded on Account basis. Blizzard have explained that all games' Achievements will give a score that stacks to give you a "Blizzard level". Whether these features will be available only for new games, or all Blizzard's Battle.net games is unknown but it seems likely they will only be available in new releases. A preview of this system can be found in World of WarCraft, where testing is now commencing in the Wrath of the Lich King Beta.

Besides being entertaining, the purpose is also to bring people in to the multiplayer game, as the Achievements will only be available online where they can be checked against cheating. It should be more fun online, even solo. Trading and co-op is just a bonus, and Jay Wilson has even said that Diablo III won't even contain any other networking functionality besides Battle.net.


In-Game Voice Chat
Especially mentioned for StarCraft II, but also a very likely feature in other games is VoIP (Voice over IP) or "Voice Chat". The technology is already implemented in WoW, and has been promised as an example of what will come with Battle.net. It probably won't replace Ventrilo/TeamSpeak for the active gamers, but a great new way to chat for those who don't wish to use a third party program.


Hack-Free
As Blizzard is learning from WoW when it comes to server infrastructure where they are battling hackers and exploiters, the new Battle.net will be built on programming that prevent any form of hacking or cheating. Taking several lessons from WoW in that regard, "duping" in Diablo III will be come impossible. Chris Sigaty promised me that they will ensure security as best we can, to keep it fair for all players. The Blizzard Accounts will also encourage people to be more responsible online.


"eSport Support"
We don't have the details on what this means exactly; there will be support for eSports and those features will probably be available for custom tournaments or ladders as well. IPTV and broadcasted matches are likely features, but only StarCraft II is currently confirmed to have eSport support, with new and advanced replay mode, tournaments, leagues and spectator mode. Diablo III eSports are not unlikely, but we'll see more when PvP combat is revealed. Either way, the eSports team would be in charge of it.

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Next year's offerings from Activision Blizzard should include highly anticipated PC strategy title StarCraft II, the sequel to one of the world's most enduringly popular games.

I agree with you completely on achievements, I don't know why every developer is jumping on that bandwagon.

Voice chat doesn't affect me at all, I want to hear random idiots on Battle.net even less than I want to see what they read, if I phrased that properly. Just about everything offers voice chat these days, if I wanted to talk to them I'd talk to them over Ventrilo, some messenger program, or Steam.

Warcraft 3's Battle.net works fine for me, but "advanced management" for friends probably won't hurt anything. Really hoping it offers custom games in a style similar to WC3, people tend to take things more seriously if they're all ranked, and I'm looking forward to seeing custom maps in a manner similar to WC3.

I have mixed feelings about the voice chat as well. Vent works fine most of the time but I guess this feature can be useful in team games with a random partner. I'm expecting an option to mute players though, or restrict voice chat to teammates only.

Can someone explain how IPTV works? Is that what Half-life's HLTV uses? Because if so, that would mean we'd have the ability to spectate pro games right? That would be awesome.

I'd rather stick to using Vent, as it's more team-oriented. Although I'm not sure if Diablo is of the scale that it really matters which route you go. In big time MMOs vent is great because you can talk exclusively with your allies/party/ect. Plus I'm not sure how they plan to set up the dueling mechanics for D3 yet, anyways. Which honestly, I'm much more stoked for D3 than SC2.

Great find and post, however. I'm super stoked.