Ever wonder how some people’s profile pictures automatically show up next to comments they leave on other blogs, or as their profile photo for other services around the web?
Those folks are using a free service called Gravatar, which simply means “Globally Recognized Avatar.” This free service is provided and hosted by Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, and it’s a pretty great gift to the internet.
Gravatar associates your email address with your profile image. WordPress (and many other sites) can then query the Gravatar service and say, “Hey, I have this email address…you got a picture to go with it?”
Setting this up takes only a few minutes, so head on over to Gravatar and create a free account. (If you already have a wordpress.com account, you can use that to log in.) Then follow the steps to verify your email address and profile image to go with it. You can set up multiple email accounts (each with a different picture, if you want), so you only have to create one account. Nice.
Even if your own site doesn’t use Gravatars (or if you don’t have a site of your own), it’s still a good idea to set this up for yourself — so when you leave comments on other blogs, or use other sites around the internet, your smiling mug will show up right along with them.
The Gravatar service has expanded quite a bit since I first published this post and it now lets you create a full “Profile.” You can build that out if you’d like, but you don’t need to do all that just to link an image with your email. You’ll find the avatar setup in the Profile > Avatars section, right at the top. 💪
Testing to see if my effort to secure a gravitar worked…
Hmm… Not yet… 🙁
It may take a few minutes for it to show up. Did you just set it up?
No and I tried again with choosing the photo from my file. Not sure what to do next – but you know me. I will struggle with it. Yes, I have Word Press…
Wrong email selected – let’s try this…
Whaddya know, it woiked!
Blog tutoring advice: releasing a blog about blogging and opening it to the world before you have a good amount of quality posts = bad idea. I found you through PGEW
Nice gravatar.
Do you have an opinion about a gravitar that is an icon or graphic symbol over a human face. I (obviously) chose an icon for my blog because I don’t feel my face is “iconic”! HA! That’s funny! Merry Christmas and I’ll see you in the new year. GREG
Hey Greg! I think your (smiling) face is the best way to go (same for a twitter profile pic). My reasoning is that people respond better to faces (even if they’re not all that iconic) than to icons or graphics, and if your blog is really about your voice and your story, then people want to see who’s behind all the writing.
Happy holidays to you, too, and hope to see you in January! 🙂