List of domains using WordPress with their version

  • Hi,

    currently I’m writing my Master’s thesis about automatic software detection and version inference by indexing and requesting static files of web software. For testing the tool which is developed/improved, currently I’m using multiple Docker containers with different versions of WordPress to test how reliable the results are, but in my opinion this setup is highly biased because of the homogenous deployment and default settings (themes etc.). Therefore it would be very useful to get insights into usage statistics of WordPress deployments.

    In particular I’m interested in a list of domains which have WordPress deployed and the version which they are using so I can verify whether the tool is working reliably but running the tool against the list and checking whether it correctly infers the software and version.

    A sample size of about 1000 to 10000 domains would be really helpful. As a bonus it would be good, if the sample would include a wide range of different versions and approximately resemble the distribution of overall installations. Of course I would handle the list with care and keep it confidential and only use it to verify the quality of the tool.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

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  • Moderator Jan Dembowski

    (@jdembowski)

    Forum Moderator and Brute Squad

    Ha.

    *Drinks coffee, gets pain killer for thought of THAT privacy issue in data collection had that data been collected*

    The information posted to WordPress will not contain information about site URLs that use WordPress. It’s an aggregate for statistics only to provide a rough but reasonable guestimate of number of sites that deploy WordPress.

    I suggest you consider asking the W3Tech folks or some place similar. That data isn’t collected by www.ads-software.com.

    https://w3techs.com/

    I have no idea how they collect that or if they would be willing or able to divulge a list of domains you are seeking but this place doesn’t track that.

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Jan Dembowski. Reason: Grammar
    Thread Starter motdin

    (@motdin)

    You are totally right that these data is somewhat sensitive and in the best case will not be collected. In my case this would make my scientific work hard, but for the sake of privacy this would be okay for me.

    The information posted to WordPress will not contain information about site URLs that use WordPress.

    Are you sure? I’ve looked at the current copy of the WordPress source code at GitHub and found this interesting function wp_version_check in WordPress/wp-includes/update.php:

    It sends $wp_install which depending on multisite installs is the URL of the site in the request headers. Sure, there is no evidence that the data is stored, but there is also no evidence that it is discarded and the fact that it is sent is quite telling.

    So you might take a painkiller for the thought of THAT privacy issue in data collection ??

    Jokes aside: It would be still nice if I could talk to somebody from www.ads-software.com who knows more about the data collection and statistics aggregation of WordPress installations.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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