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Takeaways from The State of the Word 2013

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Matt Mullenweg State of the Word 2013
At yesterday’s WordCamp San Francisco 2013 conference, Matt Mullenweg delivered the annual State of The Word address, focusing on WordPress updates in the past year as well as future plans. In addition, Matt shared the results of the annual survey, completed by 30,000 WordPress users and developers.

Check out the video, my takeaways, and the social conversation. Sorry, there’s no transcript or captions for the video (Update: As of July 29, transcripts are in the works).

Takeaways from The State of the Word

In 2012:

  • 18.9% of the web runs WordPress, up 2.2%
  • 1026 unique WordCamp speakers
  • 1.4 million views of WordCamp videos on WordPress.tv
  • 10th anniversary celebration on May 27
  • 3.5 version was released as well as Twenty Twelve theme
  • 46+ million downloads of WordPress
  • 336 new themes added to the repository, 2.3X as many as 2011
  • 15 updates to the mobile apps

There are over 26,000 plugins in the plugin repository.

Survey Results

  • Over 30,000 responses from 178 countries
  • Most favorite things about WordPress: community and ease of use
  • Plugins are the least favorite things about WordPress
  • 12% are using WordPress from a desktop application

Future Plans for WordPress

  • Development for versions 3.7 and 3.8 begin simultaneously July 28
  • Version 3.7 to be released in early October 2013
    • Platform update
    • Led by Andrew Nacin and Jon Cave
    • Focused on security and stability
  • Version 3.8 to be released in December 2013
    • Matt is heading up the 3.8 development effort
    • MP6 and Twenty Fourteen theme will be in version 3.8
    • Twenty Fourteen will be a magazine style theme

Other News

Of the 55,000 blogs created last week on WordPress.com, only 4% are active. New developer resource developer.wordpress.org has launched.

Social Conversation

July 21, 2013: Weekly Roundup of Web Design and Development Resources

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Looking down on Glenwood Springs Colorado from cemetary hill

Hard to believe I’ve been back from my Colorado trip for two weeks, it seems like I was just there yesterday. Hope you’re enjoying your summer vacations.

This week’s resources include the relaunch of CSS Zen Garden with a new responsive design, a collection of case studies from logos to complete site overhauls, an online WordPress meetup, and more. Which resource will you use in your projects?

Favorite Tweet

https://twitter.com/SteveBuell/status/356951169857372162

CSS and HTML

  • CSS Tip: A Better Clearfix with Sass: In Sass, there are several clearing fix methods, but Guil Hernandez says using the @extend directive is best for maintainability and efficiency. Your thoughts?
  • CSS Zen Garden: It’s back! CSS Zen Garden launched this week with a new responsive design.
    CSS Zen Garden
  • The Future of Sass: What has you more excited, sourcemaps or the improved if() function? Or something else?
  • Troubleshooting CSS: Hugo Giraudel shares tips for managing some of the more troublesome CSS issues including float clearing, inline block spacing, absolute positioning, z-index and margin collapsing.

Responsive Design

User Experience

Accessibility

WordPress

  • WordPress 3.6 Release Candidate: The first 3.6 release candidate is out. Help test it out, report issues in the alpha/beta area in the support forums. And remember the release candidate is not primetime yet; don’t use it on a production site.
  • How to Add Google Fonts to Your WordPress Themes: You’re probably aware of how to add Google Fonts to your theme, but did you know you can add fonts at the post level? This post shares good font and typography resources beyond the unofficial WP Google Fonts plugin.
  • Create a Shortcode to List Posts With Multiple Parameters: For intermediate WordPress developers, this tutorial from Rachel McCollin shows you how to add a custom post listing to an existing static page.
  • MeetWP: Have you wanted to attend WordPress meetups, but there aren’t any in your area? Or are they held at a time you can’t attend? Check out MeetWP, an online WordPress meetup held twice a month. There’s a meeting this Thursday, July 25.

What I Found Interesting

July 14, 2013: Weekly Roundup of Web Design and Development Resources

By

Two hydroplanes race on the Detroit River during the Gold Cup races
Welcome back, hope you had a great week. As you can tell from the photo above, I attended the Gold Cup hydroplane races on the Detroit River this week. My first time!

In this week’s resource roundup, you’ll find a great CSS selectors and properties resource site from Chris Coyier, a challenge from Jeremy Keith about responsive design, learn some practical tips for designing complex forms, find out how to improve the performance of your WordPress site, and more.

Hope you find a helpful resource for your next project!

Favorite Tweet

CSS and HTML

Responsive Design

  • A Gov Supreme: Jeremy Keith talks about responsive design issues, past methods of creating websites, and challenges web professionals with his comment:

    Gov.uk is an inspiration. If the slowest-moving organisation in the country can turn itself around, embrace a whole new way of working, and produce a beautiful, usable, responsive site, then the rest of us really have no excuse.

  • Choosing a Responsive Image Solution: Very informative and well-resourced post on the different responsive image solutions; which one do you use? Excellent discussion, and additional options, in the comments.

User Experience

Accessibility

  • Top Web Accessibility Resources: Want to stay current about web accessibility? Check out this list from #a11ychat hosts and accessibility experts with their top resources.
  • Carousels have always generated a lot of discussion; many of my web professional colleagues are quick to point out the accessibility and usability issues. In his Should I Use a Carousel? site, Jared Smith shares his thoughts on carousels as well as study results showing 1% of people click on a feature in a carousel. Jared’s site was popular among the web community this week, with over 100K visits in one day.

  • Telecommunications – Going Backwards?: Unfortunately, Sorenson has now joined Hamilton and ATT in discontinuing providing IP Relay services, due to the new FCC compensation rate structure.

WordPress

What I Found Interesting

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