<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/History-of-WordPress-300x297.png" alt="History of WordPress" width="300" height="297" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-9009" />WordPress is the world’s favorite CM and seeing that it’s been around for two decades now, it’s nice to reflect back on where it started and how far it’s come. It’s not only the world’s most popular CMS but it’s the power behind 1/4th of the world’s websites. 

What made it reach its full potential that we see in 2015? Why is it the favorite CMS? What started as an obscure blogging platform in 2003-2004 has developed into and important and well-known application. Here is a look at the history of WordPress.

<h2>Where it all began</h2>

B2 Cafelog was developed in 2001 by Michael Valdrighi but development had stopped. This led Mike Little to suggest teaming up to move it forward which resulted in WordPress launching in 2003. It started as a 1.0 version in January 2004 officially with features that today, users of WordPress wouldn’t blink an eye at. 

It began with comment moderation, straightforward installation and search engine friendly permalinks. The 1.2 version was released in May of that year along with plugins and the Hello Dolly demo. In addition, bbPress, a forum solution, was launched.

<h2>What came next</h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/WordPress.jpg" alt="WordPress" width="270" height="180" class="alignright size-full wp-image-9011" />From 2005-2007, there was a lot of changes going on for WordPress. In 2005, there was the creation of Automattic, the official launch of WordPress.com and the launch of anti-comment spam plugin Akismet. That year the functionality changed with additions of tagging, widgets, pretty URLs, spell check and update notifications. WordCamp started in 2006 and in 2007, WordPress had become a significant online presence. 

<h2>Revamps took place later</h2>

In 2008-2009, revamps occurred on WordPress like with the Happy Cog-led redesign featured in version WordPress 2.5. After changing the functionality with updates like Shortcode API, post revisions, sticky posts and built-in plugin installations, version 3.0 was released brought about the built-in theme installer and image editing. In 2009, WordPress had become a favorite among developers even though overall market share was somewhat low. 

<h2>Gaining popularity</h2>

In 2010 and 2011, WordPress became more popular with the public. The WordPress Foundation even set up a charity aimed at securing the future for WordPress as an independent open source software project. By 2010, version 3.0 saw some major arrivals from custom post types to the integration of WordPressMU into the core. Re-organization for the software took place behind the scenes with efforts to renew the focus. 

<h2>What’s gone on in the last two years</h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/WordPress-History-300x160.jpg" alt="WordPress History" width="300" height="160" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-9010" />2013 and 2014 made WordPress the leading CMS platform in the world. More functionality emerged during this time like a new media manager and audio/video support. A theme customizer, Distraction Free Writing mode and more were introduced to improve the user experience. 

By 2014, WordPress increased to 23% of market share. 2015 marks ten years for WordPress and now we’re seeing improvements like the acquisition of WooCommerce and growth in the market share. The future of WordPress is the use of it on touch devices. 

This is a look at WordPress’s humble beginnings to the blogging solution of choice for most. 
