WordPress Dominates Blogging
Pingdom: WordPress is in use by 48% of the top 100 blogs; http://j.mp/KHj5wl #WordPress http://eicker.at/WordPress
Pingdom: WordPress is in use by 48% of the top 100 blogs; http://j.mp/KHj5wl #WordPress http://eicker.at/WordPress
Mullenweg, the state and power of WordPress: you get ownership of the code running your data as well; http://eicker.at/WordPress
VB: “One year ago, WordPress was used by 8.5 percent of the world’s top million sites, so it’s astounding how many domains are using it now. In July, WordPress-based sites passed the 50 million marker. And many of the most prominent blogs around the web, including VentureBeat, are also using the platform. … Mullenwag gave some examples of sites he thinks exemplify the future of WordPress and show off what it can do, including Jay Z’s Life + Times lifestyle magazine, art project Clouds 365, and awesomely designed time-waster Who Would Win a Fight. – Mullenwag also sees developers using WordPress more often as a platform for web applications. ‘Because it’s open-source, there isn’t an exact end point for what developers can do with it,’ Mullenwag said. ‘A lot of big businesses and startups are interested in using it.’”
TNW: “The popularity of microblogging platforms such as Twitter and Tumblr has led many to wonder if the long-form blogging medium is on the decline. However, while microblogging as an activity may appeal to a distinct user base, WordPress is a robust, customizable publishing platform that powers the websites of many top media brands, including The Next Web.”
RWW: “Mullenweg’s address at the WordCamp conference in San Francisco this week goes through the history of the WordPress user interface, showing how its features developed over time and were then pared down to today’s minimal, efficient design. With its frequent adjustments to UI and its healthy market for ready-made and custom themes and plug-ins, WordPress’ user friendliness is key to its broad and rapid adoption by content creators.“
Wales: The idea of Wikia 2.0 is to attract new people who thought wikis would be too complicated to use; http://eicker.at/Wikia
Guardian: “Where Wikipedia is encyclopaedia-like, neutral (despite the regular flame wars between disputing editors) factual information, Wikia is for fan communities and more expressive. Rolling out an overhauled version in the past few weeks, Wales claims the new Wikia is far more social with better sharing features, a simpler ‘WYSIWYG’ editing interface, theme designer and improved navigation. – ‘The idea is to move into new markets, attract new people – people who traditionally thought wikis would be too complicated to use,’ Wales told the Guardian. ‘Wikia 2.0 marries the traditional wiki tools that have been so successful with newer social and editing features.‘ – Behind all these improvements is the ambition of making Wikia stickier, encouraging people to keep nurturing their wiki after the initial burst of excitement. … ‘Wikipedia is a cultural institution – and still the number five site on the internet,’ said Wales. Given that Wikia was founded in 2004, and Wikipedia in 2001, Wales’s empire doesn’t seem ready to buckle just yet. ‘I should’ve started sooner. All the tech components needed to start these projects existed several years earlier – there was no reason I couldn’t have started Wikipedia in 1996.‘”
RWW: “The company said it has a number of features in store for its users: Integration of social tools to let users share their edits and contributions with friends. Highlighting of top editors so readers can see who created the content and learn more about them. Surfacing photos and videos more broadly on content pages and including images in search results. Radically improved content editing via a new, easy to use, visual editor. Fan activity modules such as real-time streams, polls, top 10 lists, and achievement badges. New opportunities for brands to get involved in the conversation with their fans.”
TNW: “However if his software could be licensed and used to build company intranets, extranets, and platforms for writing rich documentation, websites and collaboration tools – that would be something cool to see.”
Mullenweg: 1.0 is the loneliest number. Usage is like oxygen for ideas. Jobs (1983): Real artists ship; http://eicker.at/10
Automattic introduces Gravatar Hovercards: Is WordPress(.com) becoming a social network? http://eicker.at/Hovercards
The (last) missing link: following and/or reciprocal friending of (Gravatar) profiles, including their posts and/or comments via “My Subscriptions”…
WP rulez! I like this new feature. For all that, it takes a lot more to become a social network. A better integration of Intense Debate would be a smart step.
I like to think of us as a sociable network. :)
Nice one. And so true. – Still, I’d really like to read a vision statement: Where’s WordPress (Automattic) heading to? Possibly something more precise than “making the web a better place”. ;) Will BuddyPress/MU become some kind of “default” for WordPress.com?
After seeing Ping from Apple, it seems to be at least “en vogue” to head in this direction. And I agree, that WordPress.com has significant potential to be successful in this area.
WordPress.com added Zemanta, Jabber, subscriptions and social sharing via Facebook, Twitter, others; http://j.mp/buZXJg
The most powerful colours in the [Web] world: Colors of the top 100 Web brands; http://j.mp/aHmXeB #Blue vs. #Red
Automattic has transferred the WordPress trademark to the non-profit WordPress Foundation; http://j.mp/dwyvpy
Need a design that stands out from the crowd? The crowd of designers at 99designs might help; http://j.mp/99Designs
Mullenberg: “WP.com is different from every other social platform out there because in addition to giving you ownership of your data you get ownership of the code running your data as well, you could run the same Open source software yourself, and in fact we’ll even help you do it. – Open Source is like a Bill of Rights for software that protects your essential freedoms. When you bring a friend to WordPress you can do it without worry because we’re building something to be around ten, twenty, thirty years from now.”
Mullenberg: “This has been an exciting year for WordPress. We’ve grown to power 14.7% of the top million websites in the world, up from 8.5%, and the latest data show 22 out of every 100 new active domains in the US are running WordPress. – We also conducted our first ever user and developer survey, which got over 18,000 responses from all over the world: We found a few interesting tidbits from the survey responses already, including that 6,800 self-employed respondents were responsible for over 170,000 sites personally, and charged a median hourly rate of $50. In tough economic times, it’s heartening to see Open Source creating so many jobs. – We know there’s more good stuff hidden in there and we’re open sourcing and releasing the raw information behind it. If you’re a researcher and would like to dig into the anonymized survey data yourself, you can grab it here. (Careful, it’s a 9MB CSV.)“