Last Sunday July 11, WordPress reached another milestone – the total number of WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress blogs have passed the 50 million mark with fifty percent. Of that number, fifty percent or half of it are self-hosted blogs.

Based on statistics, WordPress now powers 14 percent of websites in the world wide web. WordPress.com users publish an average of 500,000 new posts and 400,000 new comments each day while 285 million people view/visit WordPress.com blogs each month generating more than 2.5 billion pageviews.

Here’s an excerpt from Matt Mullenweg’s post regarding this WordPress milestone:

..we passed over 50,000,000 websites, blogs, portfolios, stores, pet projects, and of course cat websites powered by WordPress..It’s always fun to pass a big round number and over the weekend many libations were consumed with friends old and new, but ultimately the press has always been more concerned with those top-line numbers than we have in the WordPress community. More sites being created is a good benchmark for our adoption, but ultimately WordPress matters not for the blogs it creates but for the lives it affects. We have some huge opportunities this year, particularly around making our software more accessible to the next 50 or 500 million people who want to have a voice online…

Other statistic that some of you might find interesting – WordPress.com blog posts are written or published in over 120 languages. Here are the top 10 languages – English 66%, Spanish 8.7%, Portuguese 6.5%, Indonesian 3.5%, Italian 2%, German 1.8%, French 1.4%, Russian 1.1%, Vietnamese 1.1% and Swedish 1.0%.

This milestone is definitely a great day not only for founder/creator Matt Mullenweg and the rest of the Automattic & WordPress teams but also for the entire WordPress community.

Just found out earlier today that some of the WordPress.com servers were hacked. Matt Mullenweg revealed the incident and posted a warning about passwords via the WordPress.com blog. Although the hacks were low-level, there’s a possibility that all or any of the information kept on those servers could’ve been revealed.

Matt Mullenweg has this to say about the incident:

We have been diligently reviewing logs and records about the break-in to determine the extent of the information exposed, and re-securing avenues used to gain access. We presume our source code was exposed and copied. While much of our code is Open Source, there are sensitive bits of our and our partners’ code. Beyond that, however, it appears information disclosed was limited.

Even though WordPress passwords are hard to crack because they use phpass – a Portable PHP password hashing (password encryption) framework, it’s still a good idea to update your password after an event like this. Additional advise for WordPress.com users – use strong passwords (at least 8 characters – using combinations of letters, numbers and characters), use different passwords for different sites and never use the same password for two different sites.

Please take note that the ones affected by this hacking incident are blogs hosted on WordPress.com not WordPress.org (self-hosted blogs). However, if you run a self-hosted blog but also have a WordPress.com account, make sure that you don’t use the same password for both sites.

The Power of WordPress infographic features the different timelines of WordPress releases and major milestones from 2003 to 2010, the number/percentage of websites on the Internet that use WordPress, daily user activity, statistics like total number of downloads, total number of available themes & plugins and other information or statistics about WordPress.

If you’re an avid WordPress user, theme/plugin developer or someone who just simply loves WordPress, I’m sure you’re gonna like this infographic.

The Power of WordPress infographic by Testking.com

Click here to see the full sized image of the Power of WordPress infographic.

Although all of the information contained in the infographic can be found at WordPress Codex, you have to appreciate the time and effort that the folks at Testking.com put into making this infographic.

If you like this infographic, then you might also like another WordPress related infographic – the Prolific WordPress infographic created and released by Page.ly a few months back.

NOTE: The infographic has a small typo on Matt Mullenweg’s name (Timeline – Sept, 2010). I’ve notified the author and I hope he fixes it and uploads an edited version soon.

What do you think of Testking.com’s Power of WordPress infographic? What other important WordPress data or statistics should be added to the infographic? Please share your thoughts.

WordCamp Philippines 2010 which is scheduled on October 2nd at the College of Saint Benilde, Manila, Philippines re-opened its registration yesterday, August 16th. If you’re a WordPress user, developer, fan, advocate based in the Philippines or someone who would like to know more about WordPress then this is THE EVENT that you wouldn’t want to miss.

With that said, the organizers of WordCamp Philippines 2010 also recently released the list of speakers and topics for the Breakaway Talks which will be divided into three tracks: Basic, Advanced and Developer. Below is the complete list of speakers and topics for each track:

Basic Track

WordPress Setup and Maintenance by Winston Almendras
930AM-1025AM
Thinking of starting your first WordPress blog? Bring your laptop and we’ll make sure you have a blog up and running before lunch time.

Anatomy of a WordPress Blog by Micaela Rodriguez
1030AM-1125AM
Posts vs Pages, Categories vs Tags. Can’t tell the difference? This talk is for you and as a bonus, we’ll teach you how to upload a plugin.

WordPress in the Wild by Jonel Uy
1130AM-1225PM
The Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, The PlayStation Blog, Best Buy, Mashable.. What do all these heavyweight sites have in common? They’re all powered by WordPress. See real world examples of WordPress sites and how easy it is to set one up.

Advanced Track

Integrating Social Media by Misty Belardo
930AM-1025AM
A talk on blogging and how you can integrate social media into the mix. Includes strategies on how to get people to leave comments and interact on your blog.

Plugin Must-Haves by Hans Koch
930AM-1025AM
Find out the most essential plugins your blog will ever need to succeed.

Corporate Blogging with WordPress by Regnard Raquedan
930AM-1025AM
Learn the importance of blogging in the corporate culture and how it can help your business.

SEO, Optimizing Ads, and Blog Flipping by Rocky Tayaban
930AM-1025AM
Essential SEO strategies that matter with discussions on SEO techniques that don’t work. Plus ads optimization and blog flipping.

The Internet is not just for Porn (Videos can be wholesome, too!) by Kring Elenzano
1030AM-1125AM
A step-by-step tutorial on how to do a simple video blog but make it kick-ass at the same time.

WordPress as CMS by Kevin Codamon
1030AM-1125AM
A case study on how Level Up!, the country’s first and biggest online games publisher, started using WordPress as a content management system (CMS) during a time when local companies still relied on proprietary software.

Stats, Hits, Likes: Semantics and Sentiment in WordPress by Marck Ronald Rimorin
1030AM-1125AM
Leverage your blog’s traffic with social media, hits and statistics analysis.

Add Muscle to your WordPress Site by Gail Villanueva
1130AM-1225PM
Take your WordPress site to the next level by adding options to post templates. Learn techniques on utilizing WordPress as a powerful CMS for jobsites, e-commerce sites or portfolio blogs.

Photoblogging with WordPress by Juned Sonido
1130AM-1225PM
Includes the who, what, where, when and why of photoblogging via WordPress. Technical and fun at the same time.

Blogging with Passion by Jayvee Fernandez
1130AM-1225PM
Learn how Jayvee Fernandez evolved and turned blogging into a medium for things he is passionate about.

Developer Track

WordPress Theming and CSS Techniques by Elaine Poh
930AM-1025AM
A talk on theme design. See real examples and learn how to achieve the same effect with CSS techniques and plugins.

Customizing a WordPress Blog with Themes and Plugins by Jonas Roque
1030AM-1125AM
Case study of Facebuko.com. Learn from Jonas on how to transform a default WordPress installation into a niche site.

Optimizing WordPress Webserver Performance by Eric Malloy
1130AM-1225PM
Optimizing WordPress webserver performance with PHP-fpm nginx and memcached with discussions on common security exploits and how to protect against them.

If you’re planning to attend or have already registered for this year’s WordCamp Philippines, the sign-ups for these scheduled breakaway talks will open really soon so watch out for it. Please take note that once you’ve signed up and finalized, you won’t be able to change schedules. Talks have limited slots so make sure to book your preferred topics/talks ASAP.

Aside from these breakaway talks, there will also be a few talks scheduled for the Plenary Session. Last but not least, WordCamp Philippines 2010 attendees will also get to hear Mr WordPress himself – Matt Mullenweg.

The organizers have prepared a very interesting and exciting lineup of speakers and topics for WordCamp Philippines 2010. I really wish I could attend, but I guess I’ll have to wait again til next year.

Anyone here planning to attend, have already registered or who’s speaking at WordCamp Philippines 2010? Which topic or topics would you want to listen to if you had the chance to attend the event?

One of the blogging events that I really wish to attend is WordCamp San Francisco. Although I’ve already been to one WordCamp, WordCamp Las Vegas, it isn’t the same as attending a WordCamp SF. It is bigger. It is the mothership of all WordCamps and is produced under the direction of Mr. WordPress himself – Matt Mullenweg.

Another special thing about WordCamp SF is the “State of the Word” that Matt gives each year. Think of it as the US President’s State of the Union address or Steve Job’s keynote address but only for WordPress. If you weren’t able to attend WordCamp SF this year, or didn’t catch the live stream of the event then you’ve missed this year’s State of the Word. The folks from WordPress (via WordPress.tv) have edited and uploaded Matt’s State of the Word 2010. The video is quite lengthy at 1 hour and 15 mins so you should probably get some popcorn or chips and sit on a comfy chair before you start watching it. Below is the video:

State of the Word 2010

Anyone here attended WordCamp SF 2010? What can you say about the State of the Word 2010? Which part was your favorite?