New Wordpress.com homepage is nice

by on December 15, 2006

Those Wordpress developers been building a community and the new Wordpress.com home page is really great.

I told Om Malik yesterday (I had lunch with him over on Pier 38 at TrueVentures’ offices — thanks to TrueVentures for the sushi, by the way!) that my reign at #1 is almost over. His “Web Worker Daily” was at the #2 spot yesterday, and I expect him to overtake my blog soon.

Speaking of Om, it’s his fifth blogging birthday today. Congrats Om, and can’t wait to see what else you’ll do. I notice the number of tabs along the top of Om’s page are increasing in number.

I also talked with Automattic’s CEO, Toni Schneider, yesterday (that’s the company that makes Wordpress) and he told me they are looking at ways to turn on advertising without encouraging spammers to join their service (they want to keep Wordpress.com as spam and splog-free as possible, which is one reason why they are keeping people from advertising).

It’s interesting that most people haven’t caught onto the community aspects of Wordpress.com. The new home page surfaces popular tags where you can taste some of the community aspects there. More stuff coming soon, Toni says.

Oh, and Microsoft has a new home page too today. How come no one sent me the “it’s new home page day” memo? Heheh.

  • Yes but, you still cant pimp your blog if your usng their servers!

    When will wordpress allow custom widgetz on their blogs. Of course I have a vested interest in this but still most other providers do allow custom widgetz :)
  • Clarke: that's tied into the ban on advertising. They are looking at ways to do it -- they don't want their free service to become a way for everyone to make money but them, either. It's a tough place for Wordpress to be in the middle of.
  • I'd say - go somewhere that doesn't restrict what YOU can do because THEY don't like it. Of course, it's up to any business to decide what to or not to offer, fair enough. But what it boils down to is that Wordpress.com don't allow code widgets because Wordpress.com don't want to lose out on the advertising - I guess.
    BTW, Robert, do Wordpress.com pay you for sticking with them? Because if they don't, you are the best value marketing tool they could dream about. You must be worth a fortune to them. And they don't even let you play with widgets. Shame.
  • I really wish Wordpress would allow advertising. Right now, it's the only complaint I have.

    I've been both amazed and eternally grateful for how convenient they make the process of getting a blog online. The search-engine traffic for my popular tags has been quite a bonus, as well. And the true community they create here is so refreshing.

    Keep us posted. I've love to go commercial without leaving WP.
  • Ivan: I am not paid a cent by Automattic. If I ever am, I will disclose that with my readership. At PodTech we use Wordpress too.

    I'm not too bothered by the lack of ability to add gadgets. I'd rather be part of a community that focuses first on interesting blogging. The gadgets and toys can come later.

    But, yeah, for many people I recommend getting their own instance of Wordpress loaded on their own server (or co-located server) somewhere. Certainly if you want to make a business immediately via advertising then Wordpress.com (which is different from Wordpress, the server software) is not appropriate for you. Yet. That will change, I bet.
  • Why not just leave it as-is and force people who want to make money use WP on their own servers? If someone isn't willing to spend 6.95 per month for hosting, then they don't deserve to make money anyway. You gotta spend money to make money...

    I know WP is going to add advertising on the hosted blogs before long. There's too much potential for money. However, I will certainly be disappointed when it happens.
  • Robert, I have a related question to advertising on hosted WP blogs. I notice on Web Worker Daily that they have google ads on their pages. Is this because WWD falls into a special "we allow ads on some blogs" category, or is WWD a self-hosted WP blog. If they are self hosted, then why/how do they show up on the Top WordPress blogs of the day?

    I guess another question I have is, if you are willing to self-host your own blog, then is there anyway to still participate in the cool community features of wordpress.com? Like tag surfing, friend surfing, top blogs, top posts, glowing blogs, avatars and automatic logging for other WordPress users?

    I am sure I should post this question on a WordPress FAQ, but I figure you seem to know a lot about WordPress. ;)
  • Zappo: I believe Web Worker Daily is part of Wordpress.com VIP, which is a $250-a-month package that doesn't have the rules of the standard free Wordpress.com package.
  • i expecialy like the new wordpress homepage it is brilliant and makes it look more attractive and readable in my opinion
  • Love the Wordpress Homepage and Wordpress in General. Should go down in history as something that changed the World..
  • wordpress new homepage is very nice and very userfriendly.

    www.dotndot.com
  • Can you provide your goods and services into the educational sector in your area. if you can and you are willing to offer the schools a discount, you could find your business in front of all the educational establishments in the uk. you also get direct communication with headteachers to update them with your special offers etc
  • Wordpress is simpe to use but really powerfull..
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