Until now Gravatar has just been a way for you to use one avatar across the web. It’s worked well and allowed millions of sites to grab avatars to use in comments, forums etc. without forcing the user to upload a photo every time.
Today Automattic (the company behind WordPress) has announced an upgrade that turns your gravatar account into a profile page complete with links to your various other profiles. Not unlike many an online business card.
“What if you could attach more of yourself to it to better represent your style, flair, and personality not just with more photos but with links to all the cool stuff you’re doing around the web. That’s what Gravatar profiles are.” writes Beau Lebens on the wordpress.com blog.
So what do you get? Currently, it’s a pretty standard profile page. You get a gorgeously minimalist design (with vanity URL to accompany it), a gallery of photos, contact details, connections with your other (verified) profile pages as well as a number of personal links. Connecting your account to youR various other profiles (Digg, twitter, Facebook) works better than any other social profile I’ve come across including Google Buzz which tries to do the same, but fails miserably.
The real story here though is whether Automattic is seriously considering turning Gravatar into the next Social Networking behemoth or whether this is merely a small move to make Gravatar profiles more useful. The answer very much depends on whether you consider public profile pages as significant an element of a modern day social network as I do.
“All profiles will become public for everyone” the announcement post points out. This is not optional.
This means that there will be at least 18 million 22 million new public profile pages on the web for every WordPress.com publisher (as of November 2009) plus 9.7 million active installations of the WordPress.org software, many of which are also likely to have a gravatar.com account (to put this in perspective, twitter reportedly has 75m users, but only 17% of those accounts are actively used.)
This reminds me of when Google initially announced steps to develop its profile pages and I wrote a post describing how Google were in fact building a “Social Network under our very noses.” I was criticized back then, but one look at Google Buzz should prove that for once, I was right. But where Google has apps, what has Gravatar got? Blogs.
Gravatar has the backing of millions of blogs, plus an activity stream that could potentially be filled with comments left on millions of websites, favorited sites, favorited stories, recently read stories and more. Of course then there’s the potential to import activity from other sites, Flickr, Twitter etc. too.
This isn’t entirely a new idea either. In many respects what you see before you is Automattic’s counter move to Disqus who have gradually replaced WordPress comments on many popular blogs and have also been slowly building a social network under our very noses.
So what say you? How significant is this?
To get started, either edit your profile on WordPress.com or log straight into Gravatar.com and get your account set up.
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
Thanks Zee, I had troubles setting my LinkedIn though, have you been able to add it?
not yet, haven't tried linkedin tbh.
not yet, haven't tried linkedin tbh.
not yet, haven't tried linkedin tbh.
not yet, haven't tried linkedin tbh.
It would have been nice, if when I hoover on my pic from a comment I made on some blog I gets redirected to this profile I just made on gravatar, otherwise with the “nofollow” links and pretty much no mass way to reach it I do not see much sense and value for the user.
It would have been nice, if when I hoover on my pic from a comment I made on some blog I gets redirected to this profile I just made on gravatar, otherwise with the “nofollow” links and pretty much no mass way to reach it I do not see much sense and value for the user.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
This is awesome, its much like Google Profile, but lets hope it doesn't get cluttered trying to be a social network, or even worse to get content from other networks. Its awesome as it is, and i think twitter and other social apps should allow users to use it, instead of going to update my avatar in every social network.
it's far from a social network yet. until they start pulling your various blog posts, comments & status updates into the profile page, there's little here beyond a business card. Once they DO make that change, Disqus is going to have some serious competition on it's hands given Gravatar's parentage.
it's far from a social network yet. until they start pulling your various blog posts, comments & status updates into the profile page, there's little here beyond a business card. Once they DO make that change, Disqus is going to have some serious competition on it's hands given Gravatar's parentage.
it's far from a social network yet. until they start pulling your various blog posts, comments & status updates into the profile page, there's little here beyond a business card. Once they DO make that change, Disqus is going to have some serious competition on it's hands given Gravatar's parentage.
it's far from a social network yet. until they start pulling your various blog posts, comments & status updates into the profile page, there's little here beyond a business card. Once they DO make that change, Disqus is going to have some serious competition on it's hands given Gravatar's parentage.
it's far from a social network yet. until they start pulling your various blog posts, comments & status updates into the profile page, there's little here beyond a business card. Once they DO make that change, Disqus is going to have some serious competition on it's hands given Gravatar's parentage.
it's far from a social network yet. until they start pulling your various blog posts, comments & status updates into the profile page, there's little here beyond a business card. Once they DO make that change, Disqus is going to have some serious competition on it's hands given Gravatar's parentage.
it's far from a social network yet. until they start pulling your various blog posts, comments & status updates into the profile page, there's little here beyond a business card. Once they DO make that change, Disqus is going to have some serious competition on it's hands given Gravatar's parentage.
it's far from a social network yet. until they start pulling your various blog posts, comments & status updates into the profile page, there's little here beyond a business card. Once they DO make that change, Disqus is going to have some serious competition on it's hands given Gravatar's parentage.
Gravatar stinks. It might be a fine idea, but in practice it has errors more often than it works, and it does a poor job of resizing pictures (they're all grainy and poor quality).
Gravatar stinks. It might be a fine idea, but in practice it has errors more often than it works, and it does a poor job of resizing pictures (they're all grainy and poor quality).
Hey Zee – FYI, we don't really see Disqus as a traditional social network; i.e. not a destination, don't make ownership claims over data, etc.. More of a connector between discussion communities across the web and to the FBs and Twitters of the world. Do think that there's a lot of value in the network effects that Disqus can generate for publishers and users, though.
Hey Zee – FYI, we don't really see Disqus as a traditional social network; i.e. not a destination, don't make ownership claims over data, etc.. More of a connector between discussion communities across the web and to the FBs and Twitters of the world. Do think that there's a lot of value in the network effects that Disqus can generate for publishers and users, though.
Hey Zee – FYI, we don't really see Disqus as a traditional social network; i.e. not a destination, don't make ownership claims over data, etc.. More of a connector between discussion communities across the web and to the FBs and Twitters of the world. Do think that there's a lot of value in the network effects that Disqus can generate for publishers and users, though.
Looks like profiles aren't public yet. When I click on the link to your vanity URL I get the message: “We’re sorry, that profile is not public. You can view your own profile though.” Similar message when I try to view my own and I'm not logged in.
Question: Your email address is plainly visible on your profile. Will email scrapers hit gravatar hard once these profiles are public?
Looks like profiles aren't public yet. When I click on the link to your vanity URL I get the message: “We’re sorry, that profile is not public. You can view your own profile though.” Similar message when I try to view my own and I'm not logged in.
Question: Your email address is plainly visible on your profile. Will email scrapers hit gravatar hard once these profiles are public?
Looks like profiles aren't public yet. When I click on the link to your vanity URL I get the message: “We’re sorry, that profile is not public. You can view your own profile though.” Similar message when I try to view my own and I'm not logged in.
Question: Your email address is plainly visible on your profile. Will email scrapers hit gravatar hard once these profiles are public?
Question: Beau's email address is plainly visible on his profile. Will email scrapers hit gravatar hard once these profiles are public?
Question: Beau's email address is plainly visible on his profile. Will email scrapers hit gravatar hard once these profiles are public?
Question: Beau's email address is plainly visible on his profile. Will email scrapers hit gravatar hard once these profiles are public?
I think the new Gravatar changes are pretty cool. It obviously overlaps with some of our goals, but so does everything else on the web, right? Today, Disqus is mostly focused on strengthening its foundation right now and growing, but we're going to be doing something uniquely valuable for the web. It's getting there!
I think the new Gravatar changes are pretty cool. It obviously overlaps with some of our goals, but so does everything else on the web, right? Today, Disqus is mostly focused on strengthening its foundation right now and growing, but we're going to be doing something uniquely valuable for the web. It's getting there!
I think the new Gravatar changes are pretty cool. It obviously overlaps with some of our goals, but so does everything else on the web, right? Today, Disqus is mostly focused on strengthening its foundation right now and growing, but we're going to be doing something uniquely valuable for the web. It's getting there!
I think the new Gravatar changes are pretty cool. It obviously overlaps with some of our goals, but so does everything else on the web, right? Today, Disqus is mostly focused on strengthening its foundation right now and growing, but we're going to be doing something uniquely valuable for the web. It's getting there!
I think the new Gravatar changes are pretty cool. It obviously overlaps with some of our goals, but so does everything else on the web, right? Today, Disqus is mostly focused on strengthening its foundation right now and growing, but we're going to be doing something uniquely valuable for the web. It's getting there!
I think the new Gravatar changes are pretty cool. It obviously overlaps with some of our goals, but so does everything else on the web, right? Today, Disqus is mostly focused on strengthening its foundation right now and growing, but we're going to be doing something uniquely valuable for the web. It's getting there!
I think the new Gravatar changes are pretty cool. It obviously overlaps with some of our goals, but so does everything else on the web, right? Today, Disqus is mostly focused on strengthening its foundation right now and growing, but we're going to be doing something uniquely valuable for the web. It's getting there!
I think the new Gravatar changes are pretty cool. It obviously overlaps with some of our goals, but so does everything else on the web, right? Today, Disqus is mostly focused on strengthening its foundation right now and growing, but we're going to be doing something uniquely valuable for the web. It's getting there!
I had no problem linking to LinkedIn. But I did have trouble linking to Facebook. Looks like they may have some kinks to work out…
We're going to have them “obfuscated” to avoid spiders from scraping them before profiles are made public ;)
Hi Hannah — what sort of errors do you get? And can you send me any examples of poor resizing? We've done a lot of work to improve that, so if you upload a high res version to start with, it should retain a lot of that quality.
Hi Hannah — what sort of errors do you get? And can you send me any examples of poor resizing? We've done a lot of work to improve that, so if you upload a high res version to start with, it should retain a lot of that quality.
I think like you.
I think like you.
I find that Gravatar is great!
Well done to the guys who are responsible and hope they continue to do a great job!