Posted: Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 12:12 am. Filed in WordPress.com.
Tags: Automattic, wp.com, yahoo
WP.com
Want to see a cool trick? Open up a new browser tab and type “wp.com” into the address bar.
Whoa! It just redirected you to WordPress.com.
I could do that all day. 
Yes it’s true, Automattic is now the proud owner of WP.com, which we acquired from our buddies over at Yahoo! We’ve been using WP.com as internal shorthand for this site for years now, and ever since we figured out four or five years ago that Yahoo had that domain (as opposed to the Washington Post or something) we’ve been doing our best to get it, a journey that culminated in ultimate success a few days ago.
WP.com seemed like a great fit: people’s attention spans are getting shorter every day. Wow the weather is great in San Francisco today. Also it’s seven keystrokes shorter to type in, which multiplied by the hundreds of millions of times people visit the site every year will be a huge productivity boost to our troubled economy and prevent RSI in a large percentage of the population.
But beyond just redirecting wp.com to wordpress.com I wanted to throw something out to you guys:
What should we do with WP.com?
Leave your answer in the comments and we’ll put it into the Automattic idea machine and crunch something out at the end.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Allow us to change from http://myblogname.wordpress.com to http://myblogname.wp.com
April 25th, 2009 at 12:17 am
Make your own URL shortening service with it so people can create wp-branded links for twitter, SMS messages, etc.!
You know, turn http://sethblank.com/2009/04/24/rethink-your-assumptions/ into http://wp.com/sb046j or whatever.
Seth
April 25th, 2009 at 12:17 am
URL shortener! Like Flic.kr etc.
So my blog is at http://takealeft.wordpress.com, so then it’d be http://wp.com/takealeft I’d use it! Also good for promo!
April 25th, 2009 at 12:22 am
Perhaps you should redirect blog domains as well? E.g. ablog.wp.com -> ablog.wordpress.com. I’m betting your users would thank you for that. (Personally, I don’t use WordPress.com much anyway. I prefer to have more control over my blog.) Having users’ blogs on subdomains of a two-letter domain would be a big selling point over competing services, certainly.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:22 am
Nothing – keep it as a redirect and keep continuously improving the homepage
April 25th, 2009 at 12:24 am
What all the hip web2.0 companies do: make a URL shortening service.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:26 am
Maybe put featured blogs/channels of blog there
a portal for tags or something
i dunno
April 25th, 2009 at 12:28 am
I saw use it to serve up automagical mobile versions of blogs.
Do auto redirects from subdomains also… (example.wordpress.com = example.wp.com)
Use it to serve WordPress “Shorter, Better, and uncut…” I mean…
April 25th, 2009 at 12:29 am
How about shorten all new blog urls with just the “wp.com” address instead of “wordpress.com”
April 25th, 2009 at 12:32 am
yay… might save us from getting carpel tunnel!
April 25th, 2009 at 12:33 am
nice now i dont have to write wordpress.com i can just write “wp.com” ! Thanks for the update!
April 25th, 2009 at 12:33 am
ummm, get RSS Feeds from everywhere..it’s like the WP World.. .org, trac, wordcamp.org..it will look cool. Short and Handy
Congarts Guys
April 25th, 2009 at 12:35 am
Maybe our blog addresses could be shorter too… “myblog.wp.com”.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Short URL tied into autoposting of blog posts to twitter and/or other social networks
April 25th, 2009 at 12:37 am
That’s great. WP.com is perfect.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:38 am
Nice.
Making life easier and easier, guys.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:38 am
I’d like to see a better WordPress homepage — one that focuses specifically on aggregating the content of the hosted blogs (the one you guys have right now isn’t cutting it IMO). Maybe point WP.com to that page?
Either that or rename the site WallPuncher
April 25th, 2009 at 12:39 am
WP.com should totally be used as a URL shortener for WP.com blogs. That and username.wp.com could redirect to username.wordpress.com. username.wordpress.com/this-is-a-post is a pretty long URL, but wp.com/ahk5 isn’t nearly as long.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:41 am
You could use wp.com as a wordpress.com only theme community. Allowing members to upload their themes specifically made for wordpress.com and then allow the wordpress.com community members vote on themes they feel should be included into wordpress.com. I believe this would be more productive then the themes thread, and possibly have a better chance of more themes to be provided to wordpress.com members. Lets face it, the themes on wordpress.com are outdated and need a overhaul.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:42 am
i would like to use it as short url for my blog
April 25th, 2009 at 12:43 am
simple. Use it for making quick posts from wordpress. Iike, just sign in and post. Nothing more, nothing less. Quick press is the best thing you can do with this (at least, I guess so), otherwise comments are coming.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:44 am
wow grats on WP.com Matt… that’s great. I’d maybe use it for mobile blogging for .com accounts AND mobile access to .com accounts?
That’s the best I got so far
April 25th, 2009 at 12:46 am
How about using it for beta-testing new features/modules/themes?
Most visitors will come to wordpress.com since that’s where all the links from all over the web point, but users who have blogs here will know wp.com and can go there to test-drive their blogs with new features enabled.
(We’re also the ones who actually type “wordpress” in the address bar all the time – visitors just clicked through from wherever they came from… so the shortcut is best spent on us!)
April 25th, 2009 at 12:46 am
Yet another URL shortening service!!!
April 25th, 2009 at 12:50 am
Well, an excellent idea to me. Looks more efficient and official. Cheers!
April 25th, 2009 at 12:56 am
You should flip it to the Washington Post for 100 times what you paid for it. (Or to Corel — did you know WordPerfect still exists? I didn’t.)
Seriously, it would make a nice substitute for the “wordpress.com” part of people’s URLs. http://example.wp.com/ would be nice. That said, you don’t want to require people to migrate, because you don’t want to break everyone’s addresses.
So you could have it as a drop-down selection when people sign up. (It could list the subdomain they’ve chosen, with the input field right next to their subdomain so they can see what the URL will look like, i.e. example.[wp.com]). Or maybe allow people to have both if they have a paid account.
I’m guessing it wouldn’t be hard technically, but that’s just a guess. The only drawback I can see is that the impression of “wordpress” would be replaced with “wp”, but that’s okay, because wp.com would lead to you….
April 25th, 2009 at 1:00 am
Thanks for enabling our low attention spans
btw, I’m too lazy to type even wp.com so I’ll continue to use this bookmark feature on firefox LOL.
What should we do with WP.com? I don’t know, give everyone 15 credits for free or hurry up with the new stats feature or keep doing what you’re doing, I like WP the way it is now.
oh wait, find a way for us to use scripts in the sidebars without it becoming a mess (I know, I know but you asked) but, I’m happy with things the way they are
April 25th, 2009 at 1:02 am
Why not use it as the main address of the blogs you host at wordpress.com ?
linuxandfriends.wp.com
is far shorter than
linuxandfriends.wordpress.com
April 25th, 2009 at 1:05 am
It would be awesome to have “.wp.com” instead of “.wordpress.com” in blog links.
April 25th, 2009 at 1:14 am
Congratulations!
Maybe WP.com should be used to show help’s and faq’s strictly, so WP.com will be the site to look for help (manuals, maybe the forums) and WordPress.com the one to register new members and host blogs. This will prevent mistakes on (for example) identifying if support.wordpress.com it’s a official division or just another member’s blog. This will help too if any member wants to take ‘obscure advantage’ (like registering a blog named officialhelp.wordpress.com)
Thanks and good luck!
PLPLE
April 25th, 2009 at 1:17 am
How about making the same shortcut work for subdomains i.e. not just wp.com = wordpress.com but, also, user.wp.com = user.wordpress.com?
April 25th, 2009 at 1:17 am
WP.com + P2 = So long Twitter!
April 25th, 2009 at 1:23 am
Well make it interchangeable with worpdress,com, and no doubt we’ll all start shortening our urls.
So whatsnew.wordpress.com could be whatsnew.wp.com
As for brand image, look at: CNN, MSNBC, BBC – abbreviations work …
Thanks for the best blogging platform
April 25th, 2009 at 1:23 am
This is obvious, it will be used to shorten URLs; and it will be welcomed. Thanks.
April 25th, 2009 at 1:25 am
Well, that’s cool. You can now type in domain.wp.com and get to your site. Great work. You’re right the economy will recover within six months. If it doesn’t, well…
April 25th, 2009 at 1:26 am
Maybe something where some topical issues can be debated – invite a few big wigs in to make a statement and let rip the blogites!
April 25th, 2009 at 1:26 am
I couldn’t care less.
April 25th, 2009 at 1:29 am
Thats cool… already have my site bookmarked, though. Still covenient, if I reccomend WordPress to my friends.
April 25th, 2009 at 1:35 am
You could show featured or new WP Blogs.
April 25th, 2009 at 1:40 am
Offer people to use NAME.wp.com thus allowing people to pick blog urls which are already taken on NAME.wordpress.com?
April 25th, 2009 at 1:44 am
Sell it back?
Just kidding. It’s nice, for the times when I need to get there, to have to type less.
Perhaps a one-page add in all major newspapers. Just a big WP logo . . . ?
April 25th, 2009 at 1:48 am
You should put it in the oven, bake for fifteen minutes (at 350 degrees Fahrenheit), and make delicious and nutritious WP cookies. Or something.
April 25th, 2009 at 1:50 am
allow user.wp.com to redirect to user.wordpress.com
April 25th, 2009 at 1:52 am
This is pretty cool. When will we be able to use this for our sites (or if)?
April 25th, 2009 at 1:59 am
Nice going!
April 25th, 2009 at 2:03 am
What about a url shortener?
April 25th, 2009 at 2:04 am
Quite useful to me since I use a multitap keyboard when browsing from my mobile. Great work guys!
April 25th, 2009 at 2:07 am
How about redirecting subdomains from wp.com to wordpress.com, i.e. having chordsumc.wp.com redirect to chordsumc.wordpress.com. This would save many more millions of keypresses!
April 25th, 2009 at 2:07 am
Um… I don’t know.
But I have a question:
If I typed in http://fyril.wp.com/ in the address bar, would I end up on my blog?
April 27th, 2009 at 3:00 am
Nope.
April 25th, 2009 at 2:10 am
Nifty. Can my blog be myblog.wp.com?
April 25th, 2009 at 2:13 am
Brevity is the soul of wit, ahem!
I wish our blog URL was also shortened accordingly which means I could be http://vikasgupta.wp.com!
I typed this address and it led to me wp.com!
I have many friends (mostly Indians) who do not type the URL in the address bar; they just Google things to find the URL (because they are so lazy)! RSI They are destined for RSI!
It is fewer presses for WordPress now!
April 25th, 2009 at 2:16 am
Sell subdomains. I’d like to be d.wp.com.
Auction them off. Get even richer.
April 25th, 2009 at 2:17 am
It’d make a great tinyurl type redirect service. Super short.
April 25th, 2009 at 2:19 am
WP.com should be used for shorter links to WordPress blogs, similar to tinyURL and the many that followed in it’s footsteps. The end result could be some subtle branding on Twitter. I’d love to see a variation on this theme and not just an exact retread of the concept everyone else has done.
April 25th, 2009 at 2:20 am
Any plans to obtain WP.org? It would be nice to have those as well, especially since I’m constantly flipping back and forth between the two.
April 27th, 2009 at 3:02 am
Not currently, we have no contact with whoever owns that.
April 25th, 2009 at 2:20 am
It’s a nice domain name Matt
April 25th, 2009 at 2:21 am
It would be very cool to have wp.com as a shorter version for a wordpress hosted web address. Perhaps something to consider as a paid upgrade?
April 25th, 2009 at 2:26 am
You may consider using it for mobile-optimized pages.
April 25th, 2009 at 2:32 am
Like to see the day It redirects to all those cool wp blogs too
April 25th, 2009 at 2:37 am
Hey hey. Less typing. Good thing.
You could use wp.com to host ‘how-to’ docs for the .com and .org sites (and other Automattic properties).
Or a wordpress ‘community’ site.
Or as a marketing site, telling more large corporations why they want to use WordPress hosted blogs as part of their corporate communications.
April 25th, 2009 at 2:38 am
Definitely, there should be a “Under construction” gif for at least 6 month prior to any real content.
April 25th, 2009 at 2:41 am
Actually someone had an idea on Twitter.
Create a version of WordPress, hosted on wp.com, with all the internal URLs optimized for shortness.
A blogging system that doesn’t need shortened URLs.
A big contribution to the state of the art.
As opposed to the state of the arrrrgh!
April 25th, 2009 at 2:42 am
Not cryptic shortness. Sensible shortness. But short. And sensisble.
April 25th, 2009 at 2:43 am
love the attention-span tangent.
wp.com – wordpress people: SHORT bios of the bloggers with brief descriptions of their blogs and ratings… popularity – most read, most subscribers, wp favorites, etc.
April 25th, 2009 at 2:45 am
First oh yeah!
April 25th, 2009 at 2:45 am
I think the most obvious usage would be some sort of shortened TinyURL-esque redirector utility that people could use to post short links to their WP.com blog posts on sites like Twitter and Facebook.
April 25th, 2009 at 2:47 am
Everyone is going to tell you to turn it into a URL shortener for Twitter, et.al., and I suppose you could, but I say that would be dull at best.
Why not turn it into your own thing? Just make it the mobile version of your sites that mirrors the real sites, that way you don’t have to goof around with frames, the search engines will ignore it bc it’s just a mirror, but it gives mobile readers an easier way to navigate.
Anyway, I had to write because it’s been a good year for you with domains. First Ma.tt, and now this.
I still own Sco.tt, but I may have to sell it. Damn this global economic headcold.
-Scott
April 25th, 2009 at 2:49 am
Simple adress ,thanks
April 25th, 2009 at 2:51 am
Nice, I’m first. How about a developers center for WordPress.com?
April 25th, 2009 at 2:53 am
Hey, our blog address which are at http://someone.wordpress.com should also work when http://someone.wp.com is typed! That would be awesome as we visit our friends blog more than we do for the homepage!
Having a blog address someone.wp.com is awesome!
April 25th, 2009 at 2:57 am
Good luck, I’m sure you guys will come up with something good. Can’t wait to see the final results!
April 25th, 2009 at 3:03 am
just a thought-the ability to mutually communicate between blog spaces, cogs…more interaction between accounts.
April 25th, 2009 at 3:03 am
How about picking a blog genre – I’m biased so say ‘Politics’ – then feature those kinds of blogs for a few days or a week but automatically generated a little like the Hewt post/blog. This will give some blogs a little more exposure.
Put it on the main page of WP.com – I dunno, say for a few hours or so helping people to get more readers and a bit of traffic that they may not normally get.
Like a great big thank you to all of us who use WP.com regularly?
How you would do that and lay it out – well that is up to you – just something for the mix.
April 25th, 2009 at 3:06 am
nice… but i’ve tried it a few days ago even before i read this post…
Try redirecting blogname.wp.com to blogname.wordpress.com
that’s going to be really cool, if you could do it somehow…
April 25th, 2009 at 3:07 am
You should let users have transparently domains like user.wp.com as an alias for user.wordpress.com.
Greets!
April 25th, 2009 at 3:13 am
I would like wordpress.com
Start a microblogging site with wp.com
April 25th, 2009 at 3:18 am
what shound you do with wp.com???
well,it;s generally very tasty with a smathering of butter or maybe rolled in batter and fried.
either way,wp.com is sure to be a downright wonderful treat for the entire family/.
April 25th, 2009 at 3:19 am
Congrats guys! Now, how about giving us WP.COM sub domains for our blogs?
It would be totally awesome to have my blog url like http://seejay.wp.com
April 25th, 2009 at 3:21 am
What about making WP.com an alternative subdomain to wordpress.com?
April 25th, 2009 at 3:21 am
The obvious suggestion would seem to be a URL shortener for twitter. Make a plugin that anyone can drop into their page to get “tweet this” on each post with a wp.com/x URL
April 25th, 2009 at 3:22 am
Well, wp.com is shorter than wordpress.com, it’s in fact something like a “micro-url” as opposed to the “real” URL, why not do either:
1. a url-shortener service from automattic that people could use from, say, all the themes but especially the prologue and P2 themes.
or
2. a “micro-blogging” service as companion to the “real” blogging wordpress.com service, that would be based on the P2 theme and blow Twitter out of the way
April 25th, 2009 at 3:31 am
Let us all use it for our fabulous blogs here, of course!
April 25th, 2009 at 3:31 am
Matt, congrats. A small request, a redirect of foo.wp.com to foo.wordpress.com would be awesome!
April 25th, 2009 at 3:31 am
Maybe you could also re-direct all blogs: for example juiced.wp.com -> juiced.wordpress.com
April 25th, 2009 at 3:40 am
ttp://myblog.wp.com/
Uhmmm could be nice…
And Congratz for Wp.com 
April 25th, 2009 at 3:43 am
Awesome. This is the sf.net of WordPress!
April 25th, 2009 at 3:44 am
WOW !! Its a great news !
April 25th, 2009 at 3:47 am
Great!
Now i’m waiting for when i can type villasdelixtepete.wp.com.
April 25th, 2009 at 3:50 am
Cool!
April 25th, 2009 at 3:55 am
I think you should either make {blog}.wp.com 301 redirect to {blog}.wordpress.com or the other way around, which would give every WordPress.com blog a much shorter URL; and everyone loves shorter URLs.
PS. Please take away the requirement for the website under your contact info having to be a WP.com blog in order to comment. If I have a WP.org blog and want to put it as the website, I should have the right to do so.
April 25th, 2009 at 4:00 am
make it tinyurl option for wordpress.com blog entries
April 25th, 2009 at 4:04 am
Start another version of http://www.wordpress.com, and make it advertiser-friendly to compete with blogspot as a low-cost or no-cost platform for bloggers who would like to carry advertising. If it’ no-cost to the blogger, WP.com could take a cut of the advertising revenue. Or you could start a search-engine to compete with Google, but I wouldn’t go there.
April 25th, 2009 at 4:07 am
Whoa! Awesome!
If “wp.com”, so my blog can redirect to 71mm0.wp.com?
I think, this is the best idea..
hm…
Can be?
April 25th, 2009 at 4:12 am
A url shortener seems like an obvious choice, although I’m sure you spent far too much on the domain for that. However, a url shortener integrated with my wordpress.com account, with stats on my Dashboard etc., still seems pretty neat.
April 25th, 2009 at 4:13 am
I guess I fail to see the advantage. I have a tool in my Google tool bar that gets me to WordPress.com in one click. And I guess I do not understand your question, “What should we do with WP.com?” What can you do and what do you want to do? Sorry, I am good at Devil’s Advocate!!!
April 25th, 2009 at 4:17 am
idea one: I’ve been wanting to see more community driven integration in wordpress, like the facebook/orkut sites. In a sense to make blogging about live conversations with people. Thus, wp.com could be an experimental space to try this out?
idea two: A Design show-case for the best of wordpress blogs/designs/layouts. A promotional site for wordpress; but something that others can contribute to as well.
all the best!