WordPress.com rolled out a new “distraction-free” editor this week. No news on if this new editor will ever be available to self-hosted WordPress users, but you could knit yourself a Compupod Sock while you wait. Don’t forget to check out our other editorial toons!
WordPress.com today announced .blog, a new top-level domain extension that will give blog owners a way to better personalize and identify their blogs. The .blog extension also opens up a vast new pool of potential blog names and URLs that may already be in use by .com sites. Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, quietly acquired the rights to .blog in 2015 for an estimated $20 million, according to a blog post by Matt Mullenweg. Automattic is the sole operator of the new .blog domains, and as such will have the right to sell the new top-level domain. The .blog domains, which will […]
When it comes to WordPress plugins, we all have our favorites. It would probably take you only a few seconds to come up with at least five plugins you install on virtually every website you create. You little nerd, you! I’m no different. Among my all-time favorites is Jetpack by WordPress.com. Initially installed on one of my sites for its excellent stats and analytics feature, by now it has a fixed position on my go-to list of plugins. However, even though I use it on a regular basis, the other day I realized that my knowledge of Jetpack is not […]
Last week, Automattic’s General Counsel Paul Sieminski announced that all *.wordpress.com subdomains will be served over SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) by the end of 2014. Sieminski wrote: In the face of intrusive surveillance, we believe that everyone in the tech community needs to stand up and do what they can, starting with their own sites and platforms. For us, that means working to secure the connection between users and our websites. We’ll be serving all *.wordpress.com subdomains only over SSL by the end of the year. It’s been a year since whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked files revealing the National Security […]
Photos are an important part of the WordPress.com blogging experience. They can illustrate, emphasize, and sometimes even narrate the stories we want to tell. Photos provide an artistic element to millions of WordPress blogs. Some blogs are even centered entirely around photographs, rather than text. These are called photoblogs. Whatever your interest, it’s likely that you can find a photoblog that is captivating to you. If you’re a blogger using WordPress.com then it’s likely you’ve gone through the process of individually uploading and scheduling photos for your blog. To help facilitate this process, Automattic has developed a favorable panacea—Postbot. This application enables […]
When I started blogging earlier this year, I wasn’t ready to make an investment on a paid hosting provider so I started a free WordPress.com blog. Free is better right? Not necessarily. With WordPress.com I sacrificed the amazing plugins and themes from the thousands of developers out there and control over advertisements and the lack of support for JavaScript/HTML embeds, except from “secure” sources such as Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud, and a few others. I also can’t host a video or audio file on WordPress.com without spending $50+ for the VideoPress and more storage “upgrades”. After gathering 36 WordPress.com followers, […]
WordPress.com announced an intriguing new premium search option for its Cloud Hosting customers today, dubbed VIP Search. It uses elasticsearch software that’s “hosted, managed, and supported by the WordPress.com VIP team.” Enabling VIP Search will make your search results more relevant from the start, with the ability to filter results by type of content, category, tag, author, date ranges, and more. VIP Search also allows for developer customization to seriously customize results.
It was shared this morning that you now have the opportunity to try the new admin design that’s planning to hit shelves in the next update early, if you want, by just enabling the Experimental Admin Design (MP6) via your Users –> Personal Settings in your profile. It’s been talked about for quite some time, especially in the .org side of things, but most of the WordPress.com users have probably been casually unaware that there’s a new design coming down the pipe.
Philip Arthur Moore shared yesterday the release of 3 new themes on WordPress.com that may have a more than a few users making some switches today. And why the heck not since Philip has dubbed any day that releases 3 themes as “Threeme Day” – make the best of it, shall we? The 3 new themes, Blocco, Crafty, and Hustle Express are all blogger and publisher themes, not like some the magazine themes we’ve seen release recently. Hustle will set you back $68 dollars while Blocco comes in at $75:
A new bar has been set in terms of price over at the Premium Theme marketplace at WordPress.com as Further Theme has been released with a starting price point of $150.00 US. This makes it the most expensive WordPress.com theme currently available with Newsy coming in at second ($130) and Elemin at $115. All three are obviously marketed toward the more content rich and “news-ish” types of bloggers and website owners, but the price clearly puts it at the very top. The question is – is it worth the sticker price and sticker shock? The theme itself looks incredibly robust and has all […]
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