Automattic, the company behind WordPress and self-proclaimed nazis when it comes to enforcing the strictest interpretation of open source on others, have announced that they’re moving WordPress.com to are plugging Microsoft’s Azure cloud hosting.

At the Microsoft (MSFT) Professional Developers Conference on Tuesday, Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg took to the stage alongside Microsoft’s Ray Ozzie to announce the move plug the service.

We can’t find a full transcript of what Mullenweg said on stage yet (update, see below), although other sites are suggesting that the tie-in with WordPress was used to highlight how Microsoft Azure will (or soon will) support PHP, MySQL and other open-source tools.

I don’t doubt that what Microsoft is doing with Azure is great, and that it is offering a highly appealing product. That they’ll support open source platforms is probably overdue, but likewise will make Azure that much more competitive.

That aside, how is it that one of the most over the top purists in the open source world is now in bed with a company that at its very core is all about proprietary software and has long been seen as a combatant against the open source movement?

Still, Automattic’s and Mullenweg’s hypocrisy when in comes to open source has long been documented: the company likes nothing more than attacking those who dare profit from WordPress code while they themselves act as if they believe that only Automattic alone should be able to profit from it. That they’d get into bed with Microsoft really shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise.

Update: the transcript for the appearance doesn’t say that Automattic is switching to Azure, only some how backing it.

A number of outlets, including at the time of writing AOL’s Daily Finance is reporting that WordPress.com is going to Azure.

The contention either way remains the same: Mullenweg is an open source nazi who stops at very little to cut off or make life difficult for those outside of Automattic who seek to profit from the WordPress code.

Don’t believe me on Automattic’s support? , ask ReadWriteWeb, who wrote “Mullenwegg appeared on stage to show that his company, Automattic, is fully supporting Azure. Automattic is the company behind Wordpress.”

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Since 2003, an open source, Internet-oriented software package has done what is exceedingly rare within that community:  becoming not only immensely popular and wildly loved, but also profitable.  Matt Mullenweg has managed to turn what began as a fork of an aging content management system (CMS) into a worldwide empire that doesn’t even technically have a central office – Automattic’s Wordpress.

And there’s more coming.

Wordpress has evolved into one of the leading CMS packages in the world, in large part thanks to its many features and intense focus.  Over the years it’s morphed from a rough-around-the-edges, but useful, software tool into a fully featured and easy-to-use content management endpoint with de facto deployment status.  With built-in features like automatic upgrade, an increasingly intelligent editing interface, and an extensive plugin system, it’s easy to see why, and viewing the list of features in the upcoming 2.9 release is evidence enough that they’re moving toward a singular goal, given their prior history.

One of the complaints with Wordpress has always been relatively simple:  while it’s easier to use than Drupal or Joomla for non-programmers, a basic familiarity with programming and advanced “Internet skills” are necessary to establish an enjoyable and highly functional site/blog.  Themes use direct PHP references, plugins (until recently) had to be uploaded via FTP, and content was typically written externally – none of these facets of software lend themselves to attracting the proverbial Grandma as a user.  Yes, the interface is more slick and friendly than their competitors’, but the Wordpress team still has far to go.

Wordpress 2.9 will supposedly see public access to easier rich-media embedding, inline image editing, and an operating system-like Trashcan – these are the most standout features of the impending upgrade, and they are definitively GUI- and Grandma-oriented.  For some time now, Automattic has been playing both sides of the coin by enhancing the software backend and functionality while simultaneously smoothing over the user experience for the world-at-large, and this is admirable.  It is, therefore, not a significant stretch to assume that Wordpress is intended to one day have rich functionality and extensibility, but with an interface that caters to the general public – the Gmail, Facebook, or Firefox of CMS packages.

There is, however, a problem.

Unless a user chooses the watered-down, hosted version, a site/blog using Wordpress in any fashion still requires significant setup and configuration – hosting, databases, and the initial software setup are all required elements to achieving functionality, and they all require some technological knowledge.  Even worse are those sites that use Wordpress and begin to see traffic, because there is still a significant memory/load issue at its very core.  The Inquisitr uses Wordpress, and I’ve always used it for my own site, business, and clients, but it is almost always heavily modified for any popular or load-bearing use.

All of us use some sort of content caching option, but a step further is still required:  in my case, all sites are hosted with MediaTemple’s (gridserver) plan, with extra database-only memory resources, but in the case of the Inquisitr, an extensive hosting solution, involving Amazon’s AWS products, was necessary for the site to remain functional.  How is this still a problem for Wordpress installations?

For Wordpress to achieve its high-minded goals, it needs to begin work on the core immediately.  Given that Automattic has been slowly acquiring plugins and other software that advances its ideals, it would make more sense for Wordpress to come prepackaged with certain features, not as plugins, in order to enhance its basic usability – page caching should be first on the list.

Matt Mullenweg, Automattic, and Wordpress, I salute you.  You’ve done an admirable job and the world generally loves you – but it’s time to step up to what you’ve created, and do things right.

You don’t want to become the Microsoft of content management systems, do you?

Kyle Brady is a contributing columnist for the Inquisitr, an entrepreneur, and has a future in science fiction.  He can be found at his blog, via email, or on Twitter.

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After The Deadline is a popular spell check plug-in that allows users to incorporate spell checking into their online applications. Now that technology is in the hands of the Automattic team who have just acquired the company and its technology.

The new technology is already running on Wordpress blogs and works in realtime by underlining errors (spelling mistakes) as there made. Just like MS Word red highlighting signals spelling mistakes, green offers incorrect grammar and blue equals a style mistake.

Users can also choose how the program examines their content, such as turning off grammar checking and even setting up their own rules.  The program then offers possible word fixes and grammar changes just like other popular word processors. Users must then choose whether to accept or ignore certain “mistakes” as they check their posts.

According to After The Deadline founder Raphael Mudge, the plug-in will continue to be upgraded under the Automattic name and will remain free for non-commercial use. They also plan to add new language support to the application.

No word yet as to whether the plug-in will eventually become a part of the Wordpress core, or if it will remain a separate plug-in as was the case with another Automattic acquisition IntenseDebate which was purchased in September of 2008.

Here’s a video of the software in action:

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In the biggest shakeup to hit the commenting 2.0 space so far, JS-Kit has announced the acquisition of rival SezWho.

The acquisition was made after SezWho was unable to raise a new round needed to continue operations.

Under the deal, SezWho will close down in 30 days, with publishers being offered the ability to transition to JS-Kit’s commenting platform. JS-Kit previously acquired smaller player Haloscan in July 2008, and signed a strategic partnership with coCommen in November.

The acquisition cements JS-Kit’s place as the largest commenting 2.0 provider, and offers further strength in its battle against the Automattic owned IntenseDebate, and the still independent Disqus.

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WordPress has removed over 200 themes from the WordPress theme directory for the crime of the themes linking back to the sites and people that created them.

The jihad against themes started last year with Automattic’s Matt Mullenweg declaring there was no place for non-GPL licensed themes on the WordPress Themes directory.

I wrote at the time of the original jihad about the gross hypocrisy of Mullenweg in a post to TechCrunch that gained a lot of flack, including from Arrington, but it stands true today: Mullenweg has an issue with people profiting from WordPress despite the fact that he’s the one person who profits from it the most. It’s all very well and good wanting to be a open source purist, but you don’t get to play legitimate purist when you’re making money from it yourself.

The issue last year, as it seems to be this time around is primarily links out on themes to other sites. Mullenweg likes to call all links SEO scams, and while I’ll agree that some themes do meet this criteria, many don’t, and a simple link back in a theme to the person or organization who wrote the theme is hardly a scam nor by any stretch of the imagination unfair.

What’s interesting in the new round, having purged non GPL (open source) themes last year, is that Mullenweg is now purging open source themes for the link crime. The number isn’t insignificant either: 200 themes is around 35% of the themes on the WordPress Themes site. As one site put it: the decision is similar to Apple pulling apps from the iPhone App store, with the same loss of custom for theme creators.

This is yet another case of Mullenweg biting the hand that feeds him. WordPress theme designers were one of the backbones of WordPress’ spectacular rise from obscurity to the powerhouse it is today. Those same designers help drive use of WordPress, and they are continually treated with little or no respect.

I use WordPress today due to familiarity and availability of extensions, and the lack of a easy to switch to alternative (there are some, but they lack the community, features or ease of use). I can say though that I don’t use WordPress as a mark of support for the direction WordPress has taken since Automattic took over the show: there is zero church and state seperation between WordPress open source and Automattic the commercial enterprise, and until there is this great idea of an open source and free platform is a running joke. Mullenweg should excuse himself from decisions within the WordPress community while he continues to profit from Automattic if he truly believes in open source and that WordPress.org and supporting sites should maintain a strict ethos in that directions. That is the only way this decision could possibly be delivered with any authority and trust.

(via Pro Blogging/ Alistair Cameron. img credit: Duanestory)

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The deal will bring the two-person PollDaddy team on-board with WordPress immediately and will lead to greater stability and faster-loading polls, the companies say. They also promise growth won’t be limited only to WordPress; expanded support is also being developed for MySpace, Ning, Blogger, Typepad, Hi5, Orkut, and Piczo.

The decision came when the Automattic engineers started looking at building their own poll service, WordPress founder Matt Mullenmeg says.

“It became more obvious that, while on the surface it’s a very simple problem, there’s a lot of hidden complexity and opportunities for some really powerful features under the hood. There are probably a dozen companies addressing this space right now, but as we started to survey the space I was struck by how often I’d see this ‘PollDaddy’ thing pop up,” he explains.

PollDaddy, incidentally, has been used here on The Inquisitr several times recently. It’s a very user-friendly and surprisingly easy to use utility that adds a nice layer of interactivity. We’re looking forward to seeing how its offerings will expand with the new acquistion.

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Voxant offers licensed videos from media outlets, including AP for use on websites. For bloggers the service also offers $7 CPM on ads shown with the videos, and attractive offering (we use them on occasion), although their catalog is not as extensive as competitor Clipsyndicate. Depending on the report, Voxant was either acquired or merged with Anystream, a provider of video encoding and content management to media companies including CNN and Sky. Financial details were not disclosed, but the statement from Anystream notes that the combined product will offer more content and become a leading playing the space.

Commenting 2.0 service Intense Debate, a competitor of Disqus, SezWho and JS-Kit but not widely used as it hasn’t yet launched (it’s still in closed beta) was acquired by Automattic, the company behind WordPress. Mashable reports that the deal will see Intense Debate rolled out across millions of blogs on the WordPress.com network, delivering the service a massive boost at a time all competitors are looking for more users.

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TNC founder Chang Kim doesn’t disclose the full details of the sale, but speculates that the acquisition may have been motivated by Google’s desire to improve its presence in South Korea, a market the American search giant has struggled in.

The comparison to Automattic is made by Kim himself, and the parallels are obvious: popular blogging platform used by A-List bloggers (65 of the top 100 bloggers in South Korea use it), with an install base of 400,000 users.

In a statement (via VentureBeat, I haven’t found it at time of writing):

Google confirmed the deal Friday morning, saying it wants to “broaden its portfolio of locally-focused products, further encourage creation of openly accessible user-generated content, and improve search experiences of Korean users.” In a statement, it also said it will add “additional resources, via acquisition or otherwise.

The emphasis is mine, but it’s key to looking at the deal past the obvious South Korea market play. Google hasn’t just bought into South Korea, they’ve purchased a platform they can use, either as a standalone product (and we’d presume that it will remain standalone given the numbers and the obvious South Korean benefits) and/ or in conjunction with existing Google properties, such as Blogger for example. Chang Kim mentions in his post that the TextCube platform is more advanced than existing players in offering social networking as part of their blogging platform, so this is another angle to consider.

Automattic as the target

Automattic, the company behind WordPress, is a Google competitor today, and is moving into the social networking space through its acquisition of BuddyPress. Blogger may be the more popular free hosted blogging platform, yet WordPress.com recently passed the 4 million blog mark, and WordPress is the most popular self hosted blogging script. Google doesn’t offer a self hosted blogging platform, and so far their only effort to get into the space, aside from the near ubiquitous Adsense advertising network, is through the still in closed beta offering of Google Friend Connect. Widgets though don’t really deliver presence in the way that a self hosted platform does, and with Automattic controlling WordPress, the integration advantage will never side with Google.

Google now owns a competitor to WordPress the self hosted blogging platform, and to think that they won’t eventually use it outside of South Korea, particularly if it’s as good as some say it is, would be false. They will use it, in one form or another, and suddenly the self hosted blogging market gets interesting again. SixApart is also in the mix, but their core products tend to be upmarket, paid products vs the much lower market share of MovableType, so although Google would compete here, there’s a lot less to lose. Automattic is the company with the most to lose when Google uses this acquisition to get serious in offering an all round suite of blogging tools. If Google has decided it wants to compete in self hosted blogging, Automattic must be the target.

(img credit)

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The offers from both WordPress (WP) and MovableType (MT) are positive steps forward in the evolution of the self hosted blogging platform, but availability doesn’t equate to takeup. Some social networks in the future may well use MT or WP, but the next wave of social networks will NOT be powered by WordPress and MovableType.

The reason is remarkably simple, and the evidence is already apparent. Time.

Time on two fronts. People are becoming time poor and are finding it harder to split their time between competing services. A new wave of social networks based on WP or MT will only add to the noise, and unless there is a compelling reason to join, most will simply ignore these new networks. The move is on to aggregation, not separation. Then there’s the need to maintain separate logins on each install. There are some OpenID solutions for WP and MT, but they are neither commonly installed nor is OpenID yet commonly used. There appears to be no interoperability between installs like Indenti.ca, so each install will be a walled garden of content, unique to the site, but unable to communicate with other installations.

The second time point is administration. The ability to add guest blogs or forums to blogs has been available in various forms for years, but how many installs do we see? A full blown social network is an administrative nightmare for all but large blogs with a lot of money to throw at staff to take care of that side of the business. And even then, is there a compelling business case to be had in administering these installs? Then there’s the real possibility that these social networks will be spam honey pots. Even in 2008, most still face comment spam, imagine dealing with spam across a full social network.

Of those sites who currently run social networks or even forums, how many are truly successful? Mashable is the only blog I can think of in this space who runs a remotely successful social network, and even then, it’s not exactly a hive of activity. TechCrunch runs a forum that at least while I was there was prone to spam and wasn’t heavily used, at least when considering the traffic of the site itself compared with the activity on the forum.

The Ning Solution

The true success story in the hosted social networking space is Ning. The site has 370,000 social networks as of July, but only manages 3.5 million to 4 million page views per month, or roughly 10 visitors per social network. That traffic aside, the selling case between a local MT or WP install vs Ning is strong. On Ning, your login works across every social network on the site, it is fully hosted so you don’t have to worry as much about spam and abuse, it’s tested, and for the basic service it’s completely free. There are plenty of Ning competitors out there as well, so choice isn’t lacking. You can also pay to map the Ning social network to your own domain and to show ads, so the control argument with a self install is negated some what. If your site did have a compelling case for including a social network (and few statically probably do) I don’t see why you wouldn’t sign up with Ning or a similar service.

Conclusion

I don’t want to sound to be too harsh on either WP or MT for these features being available. They are a positive progression in the evolution of blogging, and no doubt that some will seek to add social networking features to their blogs. However, given these features are in the most part already available both externally and within each site (BuddyPress isn’t new), and similar features such as forums are old school but are not widespread, there will be no rush of MT or WP powered social networks. Nor perhaps should there be.

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Michael at TechCrunch notes that TypePad AntiSpam takes a multi-headed heuristic approach to detecting and blocking comment spam on blogs and in his testing was superior to Akismet. Mollom is another new service in this space (I covered it for TechCrunch in April).

The two great features about TypePad AntiSpam: it’s open source and it has a killer price: free, unlike the closed source and pay for serious use Akismet. It’s also available for WordPress blogs as well as those powered by SixApart products, immediately delivering SixApart a huge potential market.

It’s great to see competition in antispam products, and it has been long overdue, but times are changing. We are seeing a move away from local comment hosting to services such as Disqus, Sezwho and others, outsourcing spam management along with comment management to other companies. The numbers on paper may be small so far, but the trend away from local comment management is on, and even sites such as Venturebeat are now using Disqus. Notably both Sezwho and Disqus are using Akismet for spam filtering.

So where does this leave Akismet and TypePad AntiSpam? There will always be a corporate need for antispam tools, and ultimately this is where the potential profits in service provision rest. Some bloggers will remain using local commenting systems and they’ll need services like these, however expect those numbers to become a minority within 2-3 years.

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