Last week WordPress.com announced that Google Analytics is now available for its customers on the business tier, which is priced at $299.00 per year. Users have been clamoring for the feature for years. While many enjoy using the built-in Stats feature, it is severely limited in comparison to Google Analytics and the data is not…
Jetpack 3.3 is now available. The highlight of this release is the new centralized site dashboard feature that allows users to manage multiple Jetpack-connected WordPress sites and WordPress.com sites from one location in WordPress.com. The new dashboard is mobile friendly and includes the centralized posting feature that was introduced in Jetpack 3.2. It also allows…
Jetpack 3.2 was released last week, featuring a new site logo feature for theme authors, bug fixes, and performance improvements. Today the Jetpack team officially announced the release, along with a new feature that wasn’t mentioned in the changelog. Centralized Posting from WordPress.com Self-hosted WordPress sites connected via Jetpack can now publish posts using the…
In late September, WordPress.com published the first in a series of short videos that shows how easy it is to publish content from a mobile device. In the 15 second video entitled “Welcome Home,” a user is seen taking photos with an iPhone in various locations. Near the end of the video, the user taps…
Stream 2.0 is available for download and includes a plethora of enhancements. This version features a rewrite from the ground up with a focus on scalability, security, and activity. As part of the rewrite, Stream activity data is stored in the cloud using Amazon Web Services with Elasticsearch. This is the same type of setup…
WordPress.com released a new video on its YouTube account entitled Welcome Home. In the 15 second video, featuring music from Childish Gambino, photos are taken with a iPhone in various locations. Near the end of the video, the WordPress app is opened displaying a post with one of the images captured by the phone. The…
We started the show off with Andrew Nacin where he clarified a number of points dealing with the WordPress.com Cookie problem. He also published a great post explaining why security is nuanced. The second part of the show featured an interview with Varsity News Network CEO, Ryan Vaughn, to discuss how the company is utilizing…
Automattic was created to bring WordPress’ open source publishing software to people on a larger scale. The company shares WordPress’ mission to democratize publishing. As part of that mission, Automattic published a transparency report, which outlines the number of information requests, takedown demands, and national security requests it has received. The Transparency Report is located…
Emoticons are believed to have been invented in 1982 by Scott Fahlman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who suggested that they be used on “computer bulletin boards.” Though not widely used at that time, emoticon usage exploded with the popularity of AOL’s Instant Messenger in the 1990’s. Now, more than 30 years later, emoticons…
Over the weekend, we reported that WordPress For iOS 4.0 was released. Not only did I upgrade, but I also enabled the single-sign on Jetpack module for WPTavern.com and two-factor authentication for my WordPress.com user account. Within the comments of the post, Jonathan Lyman mentioned WordPress For iOS is incompatible with two-factor authentication: Just a…
In 2011, WordPress.com began offering commercial themes to its users. The service now has 105 commercial themes to choose from. In order to sell themes on WordPress.com, you either had to be invited or reach out to Automattic. Those days are over now that they have launched a new landing page for theme sellers interested…
WordPress.com has relaunched its Developer Site with a new focus on making information easier to find for third-party developers. The site is now sporting a modernized design with a call to action that goes straight to the newly updated documentation, outlining how to get started creating apps for WordPress.com. I spoke with Automattic employee Joey…
WordPress.com made a big move to branch out into hosted e-commerce this week. For $299/year, Business users get unlimited access to premium themes, unlimited storage, live chat and email support, custom domains, no ads and the newest feature: “hassle-free” e-commerce. The company opted to offer its new online stores via partnerships with three hosted e-commerce…
WordPress.com announced that it is joining forces with other organizations and companies around the globe to protest NSA surveillance. Earlier this morning Google endorsed the USA Freedom Act, new legislation with bi-partisan authorship that calls for NSA reform. Today WordPress.com joins Google and Reddit, Tumblr, Mozilla, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Cloudflare and many others in…
Jetpack is a plugin developed by Automattic, made up of a bunch of useful modules.. However, some of these modules require a connection to WordPress.com. You also can’t use one or two modules unless Jetpack as a whole is installed. I decided to challenge myself to see how many plugins it would take to mimic…