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Happy Birthday Movable Type!

By Takeshi Nick Osanai
Posted October 8, 2012.

Do you know what's special about October 8th? October 8th is Movable Type's birthday! 11 years ago, on October 8th, 2001, Movable Type version 1 was released. Since then, thanks to the use and feedback from users of Movable Type for blog and website management, Movable Type has evolved into the form it is today. Your continued feedback and support through advice, praise and critique will ensure that Movable Type will continue evolving over the next 11 years. We appreciate every one's help and we definitely could not have come this far without you!

As part of the celebration, let's see how Movable Type has changed over the past 11 years by comparing Movable Type administration screen screen shots!

Movable Type 1.x

MT1.png

The first version of Movable Type was released October 8th, 2001. This was just after the not to be forgotten September 11 attacks and many Americans were still in shock. Many people wanted to talk about what was happening in the world to better understand the situation and come to grips with the new future. For whatever reason, people were drawn in to Movable Type and what it could do, and the download and use of the software spread like wildfire, eventually leading to a widespread blogging movement, with "Blogger" being another big name and blogging revolutionary.

Original release articles for Movable Type still exist on MovableType.com. On MovableType.com, articles around the first release still remains. Reading over the first couple of entries, it is obvious that Mena and Ben, the original developers, were caught unawares by how well known Movable Type became over such a period of time.

Movable Type 2.x

MT2.png

Movable Type version 2 was released in March, 2002. The most notable addition to version 2 was the implementation of the Trackback function. (Although actually, trackback functions weren't made available until version 2.2.) By using trackback, bloggers could exchange their opinions and start discussions with one another.

From version 2.5, internationalization options were added. As people from all over the world, not just English speaking countries, were interested in blogging using the Movable Type software, language packs for major languages around the world were created and made available to the public.

Movable Type 3.x

MT3en.png

Movable Type version 3 was released in May 2004. At that time, public recognition of the word "blog" had soared, and Internet service companies started creating their own original blogging services.

The phrase "business blog" was also born at this time. Companies started to use blogs for PR purposes, this in turn helping to make communication between businesses and consumers easier than before and more direct.

Movable Type 4.x

MT4en.png

Movable Type 4 was released in August, 2007. At this point, six years had passed since the original release of Version 1. MT4 featured the first radical change to the Movable Type administration screen. Site navigation was changed from a vertical to horizontal layout, and the navigation bar itself was now black.

MT4 also introduced several new functions, one of which was the new ability to create web pages from within Movable Type. Other features included the inclusion of hour and minute time records for published blog entries as well as hierarchical blog entry organization.

Multiblog, a function of aggregating data over multiple blogs, was introduced, and template tags were enhanced, offering support for functions such as four arithmetic operations and conditional branching.

The ability to create and include custom fields became available from version 4.1. This function helped further define Movable Type as scalable CMS software.

Movable Type 5.x

MT5en.png

The Japanese engineering team started leading the development of Movable Type from MT version 5, which was released in January, 2010.

MT5 introduced the Website function. By using both the Website and Blog functions, users could easily create, manage and maintain entire websites. The Theme function was also introduced, and custom field functions were further enhanced.

In version 5.1, the Listing framework, enabling users to easily sort through large amounts of data, was implemented. In version 5.2, a TinyMCE based rich text editor was introduced in order to help users create and edit blog entries.

And now we are back to the present! So, how did you like that blast from the past? As you can tell just by glancing through the screen shots, Movable Type has changed a lot from its humble beginnings. However, throughout all the years, one thing remains the same: Movable Type will never stop evolving in order to make your user experience better!

In closing, I'd like to know...what was the first version of Movable Type that you used? Do you have any fond memories of Movable Type from over the years?

Happy birthday, Movable Type!

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25 Comments

Yancho

Yancho on October 11, 2012, 10:50 a.m. Reply

Happy Birthday Movable Type !!!

Wish you a Great Success also in the future :-)

Garym

Garym on October 16, 2012, 2:40 a.m. Reply

Happy birthday and keep up the good job!

Andon Ivanov

Andon Ivanov on November 7, 2012, 2:35 p.m. Reply

Happy birthday MT. I wish the whole team more smiles and continues to surprise us with new and better versions of MT.

;) Chears…

Mon site

Mon site on November 21, 2012, 10:26 a.m. Reply

Happyy Movable Type :)

Massagens Tantricas

Massagens Tantricas on November 28, 2012, 6:01 a.m. Reply

Congratulations late! 11 years not 11 months, and today maintain quality is very difficult, competition is great, but ultimately providing the best services survive, I hope this review again in 11 years! Hugs!

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buy dissertation papers on November 29, 2012, 12:30 a.m. Reply

I have been truly thankful once reading this post as the fine sharing of information.

MajiD

MajiD on December 7, 2012, 2:22 p.m. Reply

Happy birthday movable type … best site really

jogos de meninas

jogos de meninas on December 21, 2012, 5:43 a.m. Reply

Even late, I wish all developers and contributors of movable congratulations

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download extabit on December 22, 2012, 1:14 a.m. Reply

There’s much more of course, from supporting the web link composing a web log framework take off, to being an early promoter of fall information, Jerr has stayed passionate about the success of the main fundamentals that make web information so impressive.

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telugu movie news on December 22, 2012, 1:39 a.m. Reply

Congrats for your 12 yrs and hope you will come up with some press release offer in the coming months.

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personalized gifts on January 6, 2013, 1:15 a.m. Reply

Congratulations MT team! I wish an happy birthday to MT

Mike Johnson

Mike Johnson on January 13, 2013, 5:28 a.m. Reply

I hope to one day be celebrating MTs 100th birthday but for now congrats on 11 great years of success, you deserve it!

John Stocks

John Stocks on January 16, 2013, 9:01 a.m. Reply

Movable Type 3.2 is one of the best weblog publishing platform for organizations businesses, web developers and developers. It has powerful customization features that give the control over everything you publish and the elegant interface keeps things simple and clear. It is widely used by bloggers as well as companies interested in nanopublishing, intranet knowledge management and marketing communications. It has three versions that is personal basic, personal unlimited and personal free edition. It has various kinds of features. Happy birthday!!!

Wendy Carlyle

Wendy Carlyle on January 17, 2013, 7:17 p.m. Reply

Happy Birthday! Eleven years of good things - cheers to you for many more!

Gedore

Gedore on January 31, 2013, 3:10 p.m. Reply

Congratulations and Happy Birthday Moveabletype. I’m looking forward to the next 11 years and seeing what tools are developed for us.

Karpaty

Karpaty on March 9, 2013, 6:41 a.m. Reply

Happy Birthday Movable Type! I wish an happy birthday to MT :-)

haiyu

haiyu on March 16, 2013, 11:00 p.m. Reply

Even late, I wish all developers and contributors of movable congratulations

Mike Green

Mike Green on April 2, 2013, 7:25 p.m. Reply

Happy Birthday MT… I wish you many more 11 years…

multinivel

multinivel on April 2, 2013, 8:18 p.m. Reply

Happy birthday, he had a great evolution in this short period of time. Congratulations

moin cher

moin cher on April 15, 2013, 3:22 p.m. Reply

Congratulations MT team, and keep up the good job! thanx you.

Mike Lee

Mike Lee on April 17, 2013, 2:59 p.m. Reply

Happy B-day, just joined but hoping to stay here many years to come ;)

Bit Jogos

Bit Jogos on April 22, 2013, 7:05 p.m. Reply

Congratulations and Happy Birthday Moveabletype!

Burn Out

Burn Out on May 9, 2013, 11:04 a.m. Reply

Amazing thinking that Movable Type had 11 years now, congratulations for the team and I’m sure we will work with MT a lot of years more.

butoijoh

butoijoh on July 15, 2013, 11:40 p.m. Reply

I wish you always success with all your team. Bravo Moveabletype!

Bolzano

Bolzano on December 6, 2013, 9:34 a.m. Reply

I remember when this got started. Great news to hear!