WPDASH is a new service that launched in beta today, created by a group of WordPress developers in Poland. It joins the ranks of ManageWP, WP Remote, InfiniteWP, and a handful of others that provide a centralized WordPress dashboard for managing multiple sites. With the popularity of WordPress on the rise, many users have more…
Jetpack has been downloaded more than 13 million times. The Contact Form module is one of its most popular features, as nearly every site requires a way for visitors to get in touch. The module is reliable and easy to use but fairly basic in terms of features. Fortunately, Jetpack makes it easy for you…
Minnow is a beautiful, ultra-minimalist blogging theme from Automattic that just landed in the WordPress.org directory this week, bringing the company’s total free theme contributions to 54. It was designed by Mel Choyce, co-author of the popular Flounder theme. Minnow features a single-column blog homepage, with a prominent social links menu at the top. The…
Major changes are coming to the Roots starter theme for WordPress. Roots has appealed mainly to developers, because it incorporates modern build tools into its workflow. The theme was first released in 2011 and now counts more than 70 contributors to the project. Roots currently utilizes HTML5 Boilerplate, Bootstrap, Grunt, and Bower in the starter…
WordPress 4.1 hasn’t yet been officially released, but child themes for the new Twenty Fifteen default theme are already popping up. The minimalist, blog-focused theme has so far been well received and users are already eagerly testing it out. WordPress developer Chris McCoy has created a Twenty Fifteen child theme with a unique twist. At…
When Google Reader was laid to rest on July 1, 2013, many users flocked to Feedly, one of the most popular alternatives. Even if you don’t use Feedly, it’s likely that many of your blog’s readers do. Therefore, if you want a true picture of the number of your RSS subscribers, digging into Feedly’s numbers…
For the past several years, Google’s reCAPTCHA has verified a user’s humanity by forcing you to decipher warped, nonsensical text. reCAPTCHA’s method of protecting websites from spam has long put the burden on the user to prove that he is not an abusive bot. This is all about to change as a result of Google’s…
The very first WordCamp Salvador is set to take place in Brazil this weekend on December 6th, bringing together approximately 160 attendees who are excited about connecting through WordPress. The more developed south and southeast regions of Brazil have had WordCamps in the past, but WordCamp Salvador will be the first in the northeast. Co-organizer…
Wedding themes are a highly niche market for what is oftentimes a once-in-a-lifetime event. Consequently, plugins that extend these themes for wedding-specific functionality are not as common as plugins for portfolios, testimonials, recipes, etc. If you develop wedding themes, you may want to check out Bean Registry, a new free plugin created by the folks…
WP Engine announced today that the company will be sponsoring John James Jacoby to work on HHVM compatibility for BuddyPress. Mercury, the host’s new enterprise HHVM WordPress hosting platform, debuted last month with initial benchmarks indicating performance improvements of up to 600%. Jacoby is the project lead for BuddyPress and a former employee of 10up,…
Automattic launched Jetpack in March 2011 with the mission to bring WordPress.com features to self-hosted WordPress sites. The plugin has now been downloaded more than 13 million times. It is widely used and even comes installed by default on many hosts that offer a 1-click WordPress installation option. In early 2011, few could have predicted…
When WordPress is used as a CMS, pages are one of the most common ways for structuring content that doesn’t require the use of taxonomies. Unlike posts, pages are not arranged chronologically, but are instead interrelated with other pages by hierarchy. Some sites have hundreds or even thousands of parent and child pages. WordPress includes…
ModernThemes is a new WordPress theme site dedicated to giving away free themes. The themes were designed and developed by Robbie Grabowski and Mike Driscoll, the folks behind a group of agencies that specialize in custom WordPress work. The duo created the site in order to make modern themes and give back to the web…
The team behind the Jigoshop e-commerce plugin has been working on the upcoming 2.0 release for the past four months. The open source plugin was forked by WooThemes in 2011 to create the early foundation of WooCommerce and has now been downloaded nearly half a million times. If the 2.0 alpha version is any indication,…
After the dissolution of socialist Yugoslavia in the early 90’s, Serbia and its neighboring nations had an uphill climb to reach stability in their newly found autonomy. Transitioning from a planned economy to a market-driven economy was a challenge that Serbians have vigorously embraced over the past 20 years. Belgrade is now a growing center…