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Wordpress makes blogs more mobile-friendly

Company announces Tuesday that it has made its blogs more mobile phone-friendly by automatically displaying a respective theme for different phones.

Don Reisinger
CNET contributor Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.
Don Reisinger
2 min read
Wptouch
WPtouch from Wordpress. 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.