Wordpress makes blogs more mobile-friendly
WPtouch from Wordpress.
(Credit: Wordpress)In an attempt to make its blogs more mobile-friendly, Wordpress has launched two themes that will automatically be displayed when a Wordpress.com blog is accessed from a cell phone, the company announced Tuesday.
The type of mobile phone a user employs dictates what the different blogs will look like, the company said in a blog post. A modified version of WPtouch will be displayed on phones with "modern Web browsers like those on the iPhone and Android phones," the company wrote. A second, unnamed theme from an old version of Wordpress Mobile Edition will be displayed on all other mobile devices.
The themes will be displayed automatically, regardless of the themes used for normal browsing.
According to Wordpress, those who access Wordpress.com blogs from their iPhone or Android-based devices will be able to access the particular blog's "posts, pages, and archives." WPtouch will also support AJAX-based "commenting and post-loading." Header images will be scaled to fit the device's screen.
Those accessing blogs on other phones won't be treated to all the bells and whistles. According to the company, those visitors will see a simple page that focuses mainly on loading blog content as quickly as possible.
The decision to automatically display two themes was rooted in the success of mobile devices, Wordpress said in the blog post. So far, the company said, mobile devices have helped its Wordpress.com blogs generate 60 million page views per month. But content was loading slowly or, in some cases, not at all. By automatically displaying these two themes, Wordpress can limit those issues.
If you're a Wordpress.com blogger and you want to learn more, click here.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Weird.
Maybe it's still being worked out.
- by richgubby October 22, 2009 8:05 AM PDT
- If you want your self hosted blog to work on all phones, use the Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin for WordPress. It makes your blog look amazing, especially so on a Palm Pre!
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(4 Comments)The home page for it can be found here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-architect/ and you can see it in action on a few blogs here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-architect/screenshots/
You can upload a mobile logo, which gets dynamically resized on the fly so it fits every handset and tailor the styles to suit your web theme - doing so allows you to maintain a consistent brand identity from web to mobile.
It'd be great if you took a look at it - any feedback would be much appreciated!