At times, it is hard to believe that WordPress has been around for almost five years. WordPress turns five on May 27, 2008.

When WordPress first hit the scene in 2003 it originally began as a fork of an older open source project, B2. Matt Mullenweg the founding developer of WordPress, decided to form a new project using the code in B2. The project was named WordPress.

To celebrate this occasion WordPress is throwing a birthday bash on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 and the public is invited. The event will be held in San Francisco, California. The location is 111 Minna Street. The party starts at 9PM. To get the full details by logging in to Upcoming.org or logging into Facebook. Don’t forget to RSVP.

WordPress, like B2, is an open source, meaning that the user can modify the source code to better suit their blogging needs. One can find thousands of plug in created by open source developers within the WordPress community. WordPress is written in PHP and is backed by a MYSQL database.

There are two versions of WordPress available you can download the version hosted at Wordpress or you can use the self hosted Wordpress version which you host through your hosting provider.

WordPress is one of the most popular blogging software platforms used today. Since I started blogging over three years ago I’ve seen a lot of my blog buddies switch to WordPress. WordPress received a number of Moveable Type users when its licensing terms was changed by Six Apart in 2004. Many of the users made migrated to WordPress.

If you’re a WordPress user you must likely know that WordPress releases are named after well known jazz musicians. The first releases WordPress 1.2 was code named Mingus in honor of the great jazz musician, Charles Mingus. The latest release of WordPress is version 2.5.1, released on 25 April 2008.

When I started blogging over three years ago I used Blogger. I grew tired of after one day I was limited in what I was able to do. I wanted more freedom. I moved on to Typepad. I used the paid service. I stayed with them for seven months and started hosting my blog on my personal Website and that is how I discovered WordPress.

I haven’t looked back. The open source platform, the sheer number of plug-ins available, and the fabulous WordPress community were what won me over. I have included a few of my favorite WordPress plug-ins that I use on my personal and business blogs below.

1. Similar Posts plug in written by Rob Marsh, SJ displays a list of plug ins that are similar to the written posts.
2. SimpleTags created by Brubbles allows the WordPress user to create a simple list of Technorati tags at the bottom of your posts, commas separates each tag.
3. Adsense Deluxe developed by Acme Technologies is a great plug-in to have for users who monetize their website. I have been using it on a few of my websites for about a year.
4. WordPress Automatic Upgrade created by Keith Dsouza allows users to automatically upgrade their version of WordPress. It’s definitely a lot faster than upgrading it manually. I love it.
5. One Click Installer developed by Anirudh Sanjeev is a simple way to install all your WordPress plug-ins and WordPress Themes. It’s simple as one click to install, go to the plug-in screen and activate.

To find additional plug-ins check out the additional list of some of BLORGE’s favorite WordPress plugs ins.

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Entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 5:21 pm under Uncategorized.

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