WP.com now redirects to WordPress.com

April 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Matt Mullenweg has announced Automattic’s recent purchase of the wp.com domain, which now redirects to WordPress.com. He also asked users of the hosted WordPress platform what they should do with the domain, and in this age of microblogging, built-in URL shorteners seem immensely useful. Some people are also saying they should just come out with its own microblogging service altogether.

Of course the top answer in the comments would have to be using wp.com as a shorter alternative for blog URLs. Over at The Blog Herald, Thord Daniel Hedengren points out that a bigger issue here: a branding problem between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

Users are having a hard time understanding the difference between WordPress and WordPress. I keep getting questions about how to do this or that for their WordPress blog, and “why can’t I ping that service?” and so on. Because far from all WordPress users that are looking to enhance their blogs understand that they are using the hosted version – wordpress.com – and not the stand-alone one, of course being wordpress.org.

You know what you have to do, Automattic, and I’ll spell it out for you just so we’re really really clear on this.

Rebrand wordpress.com to wp.com.

Now please.

What will WP do?

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Tags: branding, matt mullenweg, wordpress, wordpress.com, wordpress.org, wp.com

3 Comments

foobarph Said,

April 28, 2009 @ 12:48 pm

well, i still like wordpress.com than wp.com. (it’s on the brand that we used to love)

foobarph´s last blog post: Umaga
A WP.com sneak peek? | WordPress Philippines Said,

August 13, 2009 @ 8:46 am

[...] few months ago it was announced that Automattic purchased the highly-coveted WP.com, and people have since wondered what it would be used for, since it still redirects to [...]
WordPress.com rolls out URL shortener, WP.me | WordPress Philippines Said,

August 17, 2009 @ 2:58 pm

[...] that WordPress.com has a shortening service of its own, however, it erases the possibility of WP.com filling that need. So what will it be used for? Matt Mullenweg says it’s still a [...]