WordPress Jetpack

Automattic, maker of WordPress, released Jetpack to rousing cheers across the globe.

Free Plugin

Matt Mullenweg was thrilled to bring services found only on WordPress.com to self-hosted WordPress.org accounts.

Jetpack from WordPress.com

The first launch includes eight features that are installed by one simple plugin.  And there are clearly more to come, as indicated by the blank squares labeled “coming soon”.

    1. WordPress.com Stats – Simple, concise site stats with no more load on your server. There are many plugins and services that give statistics, but data can be overwhelming. WordPress.com Stats makes the most popular metrics easy to understand through a clear and attractive interface.
      You will need a wordpress.com account to get this one working.
    2. After the Deadline – After the Deadline helps you write better by adding spell, style, and grammar checking to WordPress. After the Deadline can check your spelling, grammar, and style when you publish with WordPress.  After the Deadline also provides a number of customization options. You can edit the phrase ignore list and enable extra options.
      You will find the activation check box in the user profile area under Proofreading.
Latex allows you to display tricky math problems
  1. LaTeX – Mark up your posts with the LaTeX markup language, perfect for complex mathematical equations and other über-geekery. LaTeX is a powerful markup language for writing complex mathematical equations, formulas, etc. Jetpack combines the power of LaTeX and the simplicity of WordPress to give you the ultimate in math blogging platforms.
  2. WP.me Shortlinks –  Enable WP.me-powered shortlinks for all of your Posts and Pages for easier sharing. Instead of typing or copy-pasting long URLs, you can now get a short and simple link to your posts and pages. This uses the super compact wp.me domain name, and gives you a unique URL you can use that will be safe and reliable.  It’s perfect for use on Twitter, Facebook, and cell phone text messages where every character counts.
    Right in line with the Permalink you will find the “Get Shortlink” button available.
  3. Gravatar Hovercards – Show a pop-up business card of your users’ Gravatar profiles in comments.  Hovercards enhance plain Gravatar images with information about a person: name, bio, pictures, their contact info, and other services they use on the web like Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Hovercards offer a great way to show your internet presence and help people find your own blog.
  4. Twitter Widget – Display the latest updates from a Twitter user inside your theme’s widgets. The Twitter Widget shows your latest tweets within a sidebar on your theme. It’s an easy way to add more activity to your site.
    There are also a several customization options. Change the number of displayed tweets, filter out replies, and include retweets.
    In Appearance / Widgets you can enable this and show your Tweets in the sidebar.
  5. Sharedaddy – Share your posts with Twitter, Facebook, and a host of other services. You can configure services to appear as icons, text, or both. Some services have more options to display smart buttons, such as Twitter, which will update the number of times the post has been shared. The following services are included: Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, StumbleUpon, PressThis, Digg, Print, and Email.
    In the Settings section you will find a new listing named “Sharing”. This is where you configure it.
  6. Shortcode Embeds – Easily embed videos and more from sites like YouTube, Vimeo, and SlideShare.
    Available shortcodes are: archives, audio, blip.tv, dailymotion, digg, flickr, googlevideo, scribd, slide, slideshare, soundcloud, vimeo, youtube, and polldaddy]

Here is the link to download Jetpack now.

This new offering begins to level the capabilities available between the two dot-org and dot-com offerings from Automattic. The clear indication is that this is just the beginning of a raft of new features that will become available to WordPress.org self-hosted accounts.  Frankly, I am impressed and pleased that these are available for free, at no charge.  It costs zippo, bupkiss, nada, nothing.  WordPress just became more valuable and easier to use in one step. Could you do that in your business? And since they are labeled free, we can be assured that there will also be paid services arriving in the future. 😉

The features that they are offering out of the gate are some of the most sought after and popular capabilities.  Stats. We should all pay more attention to stats. After the Deadline is an amazing piece of technology that more people should benefit from.  The ability to share shortlinks, to share content to the largest social networks and use embed codes will are all features driven by Social Media. Five years ago no one would have cared about any of these features.

Hats off to Matt and everyone that made this possible. This is a monster step in the right direction for WordPress, all of WordPress.

Which features are you most interested in?

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