For years Automattic’s WordPress.com has allowed bloggers to make money with ads. The best option thus far has been Google AdSense. Now WordPress is saying “you deserve better than AdSense.” Now Automattic has launched a new service called WordAds. There are over 50,000 WordPress-powered blogs launching every day. These blogs will soon be able to place ads on their websites through Automattic’s partnership with Federated Media. [WordPress Blog]

People that use the WordPress platform knows about the eco-system built around it. Plugins are one of the most important aspects of running a blog that runs on WordPress. Below is a list of over 20 plugins available that would come in handy for WordPress admins.

Hackers have gained root-access to several WordPress.com servers this morning. Some of the VIP customers’ source code was accessible by the hackers. WordPress.com VIP customers were alerted a “code red” and passwords/API keys were changed.

WordPress is used by 13% of the 1 million biggest websites. In terms of competition, WordPress surpassed Movable Type, another blog content management system. Why is WordPress winning the battle? According to Byrne Reese, the former product manager of Movable Type and TypePad, there are several reasons why WordPress is winning.

This past September Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced that Windows Live Spaces would be migrated over to WordPress.com. Today they have announced that over 500,000 Windows Live Spaces blogs have been successfully imgrated over to WordPress.com. As part of Microsoft’s partnership with WordPress.com parent company Automattic, Microsoft Messenger Connect can be used by WordPress.com users to share their blog posts with Messenger. [Windows Team Blog]

WordPress has launched an application for Nokia Symbian^3. This is the fourth largest mobile platform that the blogging company launch an app for after launching on iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. The application was written in Qt, which means that it will work on the Nokia N8, The Nokia C7, and the Nokia C6-01. Features include the ability to post on the go, moderate comments, check statistics, and photo uploading. [IntoMobile]

Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com has added SMS text messaging support for the blog platform (note: this service is only available to U.S. WordPress.com users as of right now). There are free WordPress.com SMS features and there are paid features.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and WordPress.com has announced that Windows Live Space users will now be using the WordPress.com blogging platform. WordPress.com has made the migration easy using a brand a new import. Windows Live Spaces users will have the option to import all posts, comments, and photos to the WordPress.com platform.