WordPress

Word press is the first of its kind, technology savvy, open source publishing platform for hosting blogs, online magazines or e-zines. As has been the case with many online open source softwares, the wordpress software has also gained mass popularity with bloggers and publishers. It was started in 2003 with a view to enhance the flexibility that is associated with blogging. It was preceded by b2\cafelog and designed by the same creator. The growth of wordpress is phenomenal and its user base has grown from single digit numbers to millions in a few years. The tool is used worldwide on thousands of websites by millions of people each day.
The good thing about open source platforms is that at any given time, there are thousands of developers working on the tool to add enhancements and plug-ins that seek to add to the functionality of the tool. WordPress being an open source project derives the same advantages. The freedom is not just to use it but to develop it as well. There prevails an overwhelming sense of community feeling by being part of the whole project which many people find rewarding in itself.
There are two main branches that the platform has diversified into. The tool that enables publishing using a host server can be downloaded from the main website wordpress.org and installed with ease. The requirements for the tool to be functional are firstly a space on the World Wide Web which hosts the intended web page or site. The flexible customization that the tool offers addresses almost every publishing need. The only requirement is to have a host server that supports PHP and MySQL. WordPress recommends the use of an Apache or Litespeed server to host the site.
The other offshoot is a simple blogging service called wordpress.com which allows anyone looking to have a free blog to register and publish content without having to go through any of the hassles associated with hosting a website. There are no monthly payments to be made to the server host in this case. The blogging features are similar and at par with most other free blogging utilities that are available online such as blogger.com.
WordPress makes available to its users, the cutting edge in technology and features that are at par with the best commercially available softwares of its kind. The flexibility that is offered in terms of delivery of content is immense. There are options for customized themes and templates. At one point due to spamming concerns, sponsored themes were banned. This ban has been lifted and all themes that are first vetted by a machine and a human can be uploaded to a directory that has been established for the purpose. The blogging features on wordpress include the ability to include permalinks and tagging of posts and articles. The entire platform is search engine friendly and also supports Trackback and Pingback standards. There are multitudes of plug-ins available for download and use with further scope for functionality development.