In the spring of 2008 I opened the door of my Website Creation Workshop to teach WordPress to non techie business owners. That was a long 12 years ago and the world of websites was very different back then. Business owners were dependent on techie webmasters to build their sites. People who knew how to do HTML, coding, and use tools like Dreamweaver. A few tech-savvy business owners were building simple sites with tools provided by their hosting companies, but they were often super ugly sites. In this post I’ll give you the history of WordPress
WordPress was still in its early stages in 2008 and the stats now are astounding. As of July 2019, WordPress powers 34% of all existing websites. That’s 75 million sites. With 61% of the market share, it’s by far the most popular website management system today.
So how has WordPress become such a popular platform in such a short period of time? Let’s visit the history of WordPress and find out.
Birth of WordPress
Matt Mullenweg
Photo by Chiku chu [CC BY-SA 3.0 ], from Wikimedia Commons
WordPress made an appearance in this world back in May 2003. It was the brainchild of Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. They developed the software based on a discontinued blogging software called b2/cafelog. The first version was called WordPress 0.7.
In January 2004, WordPress released WordPress 1.0. They called this version “Davis”, after jazz musician Miles Davis. Matt Mullenweg has a love of jazz music. And so began the tradition of naming each new WordPress version after a famous jazz musician.
That same year Movable Type, a popular blogging platform, changed its licensing terms. Dissatisfied users and developers took the opportunity to migrate to WordPress. Its number of users doubled in a single month. WordPress’ climb to the top had begun.
Plugins, Themes, and the Brand New Admin Panel
Plugins arrived with Version 1.2 (Mingus) in May 2004. Developers and users increased the capability of WordPress by creating and sharing plugins.
In 2005, WordPress 1.5 (Strayhorn) added static pages and themes. As a result, WordPress became an attractive platform on which to build a full website, not just a blog. WordPress 2.0 (Duke) in December of 2005 introduced a brand new admin panel and other major updates.
WordPress Updates, Each with More Features
WordPress’ Mission Statement starts with:
“WordPress is software designed for everyone, emphasizing accessibility, performance, security, and ease of use.”
True to its mission, WordPress has released new versions many times every year, with minor security updates between. See the history of major updates here. You can read more about some of them in my blog, too.
The last big release, WordPress 5.0 (Bebo), appeared on December 6, 2018. WordPress 5.0 was another major milestone in the development of WordPress. It included a visual WordPress page-builder editor, known as Gutenberg. They now call it the “Block Editor”. (By the way, I’m still not using it yet)
Growing Support from Worldwide WordPress Community
As WordPress has gained popularity, communities that support WordPress have popped up all over the world.
Then WordPress’ mission statement continues with:
“We believe in democratizing publishing and the freedoms that come with open source. Supporting this idea is a large community of people collaborating on and contributing to this project. The WordPress community is welcoming and inclusive. Our contributors’ passion drives the success of WordPress which, in turn, helps you reach your goals.”
You’ll see this passion in every corner of the WordPress world! One place this is evident is at the WordPress conferences called “WordCamps”. WordCamps are locally-organized events covering everything related to WordPress. The first WordCamp was held in 2006 in San Francisco. Today, there are over 1000 WordCamps in 65 countries spanning 6 continents. These WordCamps are entirely organized by volunteers. Even the speakers volunteer to do presentations and pay their own transportation to get to the camps (which sometimes includes international travel).
With such strong community support, it’s no wonder WordPress shows no signs of slowing down.
Today, Notable Businesses Trust WordPress
Here are just a few of the well-known companies using WordPress to run their websites!
The Future for WordPress
Over the past few years, quite a few CMS web platforms and online website builders have come onto the scene. Nonetheless, WordPress continues to dominate in the world of website platforms.
I have no doubt that WordPress will keep growing to be more functional and user-friendly. And that’s why I continue teaching WordPress in my Website Creation Workshop. It will let your website grow as your business grows!
