Trick Or Treat: Domains
Our most requested feature has nearly always been the ability to change a blog’s URL. We’ve been working on a system that lets you do just that and I am pleased to tell you that it is almost ready!
Just to clarify what I’m talking about, we are making it possible to give your WordPress.com blog a different URL. For example, your blog can live at yourdomain.com or blog.yourdomain.com instead of yourblog.wordpress.com.
Domain registration and mapping are sensitive, technical operations and we want these processes to be easy. To that end, the development and testing have to be thorough. While I was setting up test domains it occurred to me that I ought to set them up on live blogs rather than test blogs. The more traffic the systems gets during testing, the more confidently we can release the feature.
So here’s my idea: I’ll sneak into a few of your dashboards when you aren’t looking and give you a brand new domain based on your current one. If you like it, keep it as your blog URL until it expires or you renew it. If you don’t like it, you’ll be able to switch back to your wordpress.com domain. If you decide to keep it, all of your old URLs (permalinks) will still work. They’ll simply redirect visitors to the new URL.
It’s a bit of a treat and a bit of a trick. This is for testing, remember? Something might go horribly wrong and your blog might become inaccessible to visitors from Bangalore or Biloxi. You might not like the domain. You might be such a fan of WordPress that you miss your old subdomain. In any event, you will be able to switch your blog back to its old URL any time. The free URL also expires after one year, so you’ll have to pay to renew it or lose it. Tricky, huh?
I’ve set up a new domain for a friend already (Rhieinnon) but I don’t have that many friends so I’m just going to cruise comments on the top blogs for victims. First victim: Raincoaster. Watch out!
p.s. Matt had the idea of making the new domains free for a random selection of people who sign up. More details when we release the feature. (Soon!)
Oct 22nd at 3:52 pm
well . goody good
Oct 22nd at 3:58 pm
What a nice thing to log onto today. You’ve heard it before but I will say it again. You guys rock!
Oct 22nd at 3:58 pm
I would be very much interested…
Oct 22nd at 4:01 pm
Whee! how exciting! you guys are outstanding, I can’t believe all the great stuff you do for us.
Oct 22nd at 4:01 pm
Hey, Thats great news
. So what does it take to get you into my dash board 
Oct 22nd at 4:11 pm
what first commenter get :p
wordpress rules
Oct 22nd at 4:12 pm
This is kind of vague and confusing. How will this system work? And what are you doing to our system? And if you impose this on some of us, will the original username.wordpress.com subdomain still work?
Oct 22nd at 4:13 pm
FANTASTIC!!! Really Good news!
Oct 22nd at 4:16 pm
Thought – what about if one already has a domain name? Can that be used for testing or when the service finally goes live?
Oct 22nd at 4:21 pm
I have been waiting for this. Even registered shodanscrbbles.com at godaddy.
I am a willing guinea pig.
Oct 22nd at 4:21 pm
Oooh, spooky! And tasty! All at the same time!
Pick me, pick me! *raises hands*
Oct 22nd at 4:24 pm
That’s wild. Nice job.
Oct 22nd at 4:25 pm
Me! Me! Me! Me, next. Hahaha just hapoy for this new upcoming “feature”. Goodluck.
Oct 22nd at 4:27 pm
i want this feature in my blog linh760li.wordpress.com
Thank you very much!
Oct 22nd at 4:33 pm
Wow! sounds cool to me
Lets have this up and running!!
Oct 22nd at 4:35 pm
Doesn’t Andy have any avatar?
Oct 22nd at 4:38 pm
Whoa. I like the part about changing domains, but not the part where things go horribly wrong
Nice work! WordPress FTW~
Oct 22nd at 4:42 pm
Hi!
I already have a Domain routed to my wordpress blog, so i woukld not like this feature, allthough it´s a great one.
If the wordpress domain would change then the visitors to my real domain won´t be redirected to my blog.
Or have i misunderstood something?
Airway
Oct 22nd at 4:47 pm
Very exciting! Good work again.
Oct 22nd at 4:47 pm
uau! nice feature
Oct 22nd at 4:48 pm
Wow! Way tricky. Thanks.
Looking forward to it.
Alicia
Oct 22nd at 4:51 pm
Hi Andy,
Sounds like a great idea. I’ll be a victim–sneak into my dashboard and surprise me with a new domain!! I don’t have many visitors from Bangladore or Biloxi, so I’m up for giving it a try. URL me!!
Oct 22nd at 4:52 pm
Thanks..
Very intersting..
How can we know whether we have been selected or not?
Thanks again..
Oct 22nd at 4:55 pm
Pretty pleaaaaase
Oct 22nd at 4:56 pm
/me would happily a guinea pig for such testing.
Oct 22nd at 4:58 pm
nice work
Oct 22nd at 4:59 pm
Ohh, ooh, pick me, pick me! I’ll be a GREAT friend!
Oct 22nd at 4:59 pm
Ok, so mine is http://gavilan1010.wordpress.com , If I was to change to http://gavilan1010.com would the .wordpress.com one still work, as in all the websites im linked in ect…
and how much would the domain costs, this sounds good, please e- mail me at gavilan1010@gmail.com
Oct 22nd at 5:09 pm
Wows! I am game!
Oct 22nd at 5:13 pm
Looks cool. Thanks.
Oct 22nd at 5:17 pm
cool~!!
Oct 22nd at 5:18 pm
This is amazing!!
Oct 22nd at 5:26 pm
oohh new domains free? that’s awesome
Anyway, great job! You guys are amazing. Love what you’ve done with it overall.
Oct 22nd at 5:33 pm
Can u give me a free domain as well..I just love WordPress
Cant get enough of them
Oct 22nd at 5:35 pm
This is going to be a real treat! Trick is ok, ppl would be willing to pay – just let them experience the taste of a new domain, build up users/readers who eat feeds from the new url.. and one year down the line many of them will pay (or risk loosing those many subscribers, page rank, etc)
Waiting for this one to be out!
Oct 22nd at 5:38 pm
Well that is a kool thing bt I guess I will have to wait until I get myself my own domian.
Oct 22nd at 5:48 pm
Nice to see you’re always making new stuff available for us ! THanks a lot
Oct 22nd at 5:52 pm
Interesting. Thanks for your work nonetheless!
Oct 22nd at 5:52 pm
Great idea Matt : )
i had to redir my current domain here, though i still love the .wordpress.com subdomain – nice n easy : )
Oct 22nd at 5:58 pm
Cool idea. I’m still itching to be able to set my blog up at system13.com.
Oct 22nd at 5:59 pm
Wonderful. But I really like the wordpress.com subdomain XD.
Oct 22nd at 6:00 pm
Sounds like a very interesting idea. I am game
.
Oct 22nd at 6:04 pm
Nice idea!
Oct 22nd at 6:06 pm
I have SOOOOO been looking forward to this. Can’t wait to see what you have planned.
Oct 22nd at 6:09 pm
cool, but dont get it but still cool
Oct 22nd at 6:10 pm
Man, there you go again upping the ante!
Sweet offer to everyone who recieves it.
Oct 22nd at 6:17 pm
Count me in!
Oct 22nd at 6:19 pm
Yes, yes YES~! Hehe, Andy and WP.com et al, you guys are awesome. I was thisclose to registering a domain from 3rd party but still debating it.
Lo and behold you guys read my mind weee! For the record, if you guys tweak mine, I prefer: thehype.com
Oct 22nd at 6:22 pm
Woah!
Oct 22nd at 6:24 pm
Sounds awesome!
Oct 22nd at 6:24 pm
Please randomly select me for the free domain!
Oct 22nd at 6:25 pm
Oct 22nd at 6:25 pm
me wants
Oct 22nd at 6:26 pm
Cool!
Oct 22nd at 6:28 pm
Too bad I already own the domain name I like so I guess no chance you will sneak in my dashboard. Still, this is great news! Been waiting patiently. I’m really looking forward to this feature.
Oct 22nd at 6:30 pm
perfect!
Oct 22nd at 6:38 pm
ooh. I want someone to sneak into my dashboard! (I’ve been throwing around the idea of getting my own domain — so this could definitely be the surprise I’d been looking for!)
Pick me!
Oct 22nd at 6:46 pm
ahhhhh!!! ME ME!!! PICK ME!
Oct 22nd at 6:56 pm
One of my comments got deleted
Oct 22nd at 7:11 pm
This is awesome. I definitely want to change my link, but can we change it to anything we want, or does it still have to include our username?
Oct 22nd at 7:15 pm
Sounds good, I would love to see how this works – if you need a tester more, count me in
Oct 22nd at 7:19 pm
Been waiting for this! I hope it goes live soon
Oct 22nd at 7:22 pm
Outstanding, finally a free blogging system that has that human touch to it and actually works well, not to mention look good too!
Oct 22nd at 7:26 pm
The idea is superb, lets see if it will work. BTW, how much will the renew cost for extra 1 year?
Oct 22nd at 7:37 pm
WordPress, you make trick or treating fun! I’m not looking, I’m leaving this reply, so feel free to sneak into my dashboard and fiddle with my domain at your earliest convienence.
Oct 22nd at 7:44 pm
Sneak in my blog any time you want, I’m over 18 and consenting. (if I may: I’d like to be called plaintly techbee.fr in the future…if I am one of the selected fews. (I am French in France. I qualify as a minority blogger for any affirmative sneaking action).
Oct 22nd at 7:45 pm
Suena interesante; vamos a ver cómo funciona en la práctica. De todas maneras felicidades, realmente uds. hacen un muy buen trabajo.
Oct 22nd at 7:45 pm
Sneak in my blog any time you want, I’m over 18 and consenting. (if I may: I’d like to be called just “www.techbee.fr” in the future…if I am one of the selected fews. (I am French in France. I qualify as a minority blogger for any affirmative sneaking action).
Oct 22nd at 7:47 pm
I’m not looking, I’m writing this reply, so feel free to sneak into my dashboard and fiddle with my domain. WordPress, you make trick or treating fun.
Oct 22nd at 7:52 pm
very excited, I have been looking forward to this for a long time – got to love wordpress.
Oct 22nd at 7:55 pm
Sounds fiendishly good
Oct 22nd at 8:02 pm
Very interesting concept…. WordPress Rocks!!
Oct 22nd at 8:21 pm
Ok..if you apply “foo.com” to Mr. Foo’s “foo.wordpress.com”, what are his right in terms of that domain?
That is, if Mr. Foo wants to shut down his wp.com site and open his own “www.foo.com”, will you allow him to purchase the domain?
Or am I overthinking this or something?
Oct 22nd at 8:21 pm
I love you wordpress.
You complete me.
Oct 22nd at 8:33 pm
gr8 ppl i would like to know who the lucky ppl r ne way and u didnt mention abt the price how much is it gonna cost i have start saving!!!!!
Oct 22nd at 8:34 pm
Oooh. Now this is some candy I wouldn’t mind getting for Halloween. ;D
I should blog a bit more too I suppose.
Oct 22nd at 8:34 pm
*hands up in the air* Awesome!
Oct 22nd at 8:45 pm
trickyyyyyyy! Pick me – I will give you a trick-or-treat candy
Oct 22nd at 8:50 pm
Cooooooooooooooooooool
Oct 22nd at 8:53 pm
So how much will this cost?
So as of now, even if I have a domain there is nothing I can do to map it to my wordpress.com site?
Oct 22nd at 9:09 pm
Where do I sign up???
GREAT option!
Oct 22nd at 9:09 pm
I’ve always wanted to change mine to Ironic Surrealism.com. It was very late or early whichever way you look at it, when I first registered my blog. And on hindsight well…I should of put more thought into it.
Oct 22nd at 9:18 pm
Waiting for the final execution. Two thumbs up!
Oct 22nd at 9:28 pm
Really nice idea!!
Thank you guys for all the improvements you’ve been doing lately.
Oct 22nd at 9:53 pm
Great trick or treat for Halloween. Loving the *new features* even in test phase.
but having the ability to have a chosen domain name … that is special. Thanks.
Me, I like people *knowing* I’m at WordPress
Oct 22nd at 10:11 pm
Now this is cool and the gang!
Eoin
Oct 22nd at 10:12 pm
As usual, cooler than cool… one thought: we will need to re-register in every place where we used our previous URL or will we keep both?
Oct 22nd at 10:46 pm
Fantastic.
Oct 22nd at 11:21 pm
I’m game
Oct 22nd at 11:28 pm
sneak in, change mine to onethingiknow.whateverisavailable. I won’t mind : )
Oct 22nd at 11:36 pm
wow! *whistles*
Oct 23rd at 12:15 am
i have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this! i’m so excited! pick me! pick me!
Oct 23rd at 12:27 am
I would say PICK ME PICK ME but Mary Kay Inc. already registered marykaysucks.com, so I don’t think I’m a good candidate!
Oct 23rd at 12:35 am
Jesus F*cking Christ Andy, YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!!!
Oct 23rd at 1:25 am
seems a good idea – pick me, please.
http://goldcoaster.wordpress.com
Oct 23rd at 1:26 am
awesome
Oct 23rd at 1:52 am
gavilan1010.com would be nice
!
Oct 23rd at 2:04 am
new to wordpress and im loving it already, left another blog thats going completely pay for. thanks you guys!!!
Oct 23rd at 2:14 am
In case my last “Go WordPress” post was too uh vigorous to survive the editing process, I’d just like to say thanks, and I’ve already gotten several direct hits from search engines looking for “raincoaster” which never happened before.
Double thanks!
Oct 23rd at 2:20 am
Hey … I want one.
ps: I am a techie (familiar with DNS and stuff). I am willing to be a tester with my own domain. But, I’ll take whatever I got.