WordPress

WordPress, content management system (CMS) developed in 2003 by American blogger Matt Mullenweg and British blogger Mike Little. WordPress is most often used to create blogs, but the program is sufficiently flexible that it can be used to create and design any sort of website. It is also an open-source product, so users can modify it for their own purposes.

WordPress was the successor to the blogging tool b2/cafelog, which was developed in 2001 by French programmer Michel Valdrighi. In 2002 Valdrighi stopped developing b2, but in January 2003 Mullenweg, a university freshman who was using b2, wrote on his blog that he would be willing to “fork” the blogging tool (that is, continue improving it without Valdrighi’s involvement). The next day Little left a comment on Mullenweg’s post that he would be willing to help. In May 2003 they released the first version, 0.7, of WordPress, a name suggested by blogger Christine Selleck. WordPress began a tradition of naming its major releases after famous jazz musicians in January 2004 with version 1.0 (Davis), named after American trumpeter Miles Davis. Version 1.2 (Mingus), released in May 2004, added support for plug-ins, independently developed programs that add new capabilities to WordPress sites.

In February 2005, version 1.5 (Strayhorn) introduced themes, layouts for the designs of WordPress sites, many of which were created by WordPress users. In June 2010, version 3.0 (Thelonious) added the ability to manage multiple sites. By 2011 WordPress’s ease of use and flexibility had established it as the dominant CMS software; it was used by more than half the websites that used a CMS. As of 2022, it was estimated that about one-third of the top million most-visited websites and over 40 percent of all websites were run on WordPress.