Show who you are with Gravatar Hovercards
You thought Gravatar Profiles were cool? Wait until you see them on your WordPress.com blog.
Today dawns a new era in Gravatar awesomeness: Gravatar Hovercards. It’s now easy to find out about who is behind your favorite comments simply by moving your mouse. This new feature is now enabled by default across WordPress.com.
What’s a Hovercard?
Gravatar Hovercards show information about a person: name, bio, pictures, and their contact info at other services they use on the web like Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
As a commenter, Hovercards offer a great way to show your Internet presence and help people find your own blog. As a blogger, you can quickly check out who’s commenting on your blog, and have an easier time connecting with them.
How to use and see Hovercards
You can see other people’s Hovercards by moving your mouse over their Gravatar picture in comments on any WordPress.com blog, and after a moment the Hovercard will appear. The information shown is taken directly from the person’s Gravatar profile. The more info in the profile, the more we show in the Hovercard.
This can help you when moderating comments, as Hovercards will appear not only on blogs, but inside your blog dashboard as well.
If it’s not something you want for your blog, you can turn Hovercards off for your blog by going to Settings, Discussions, Avatars.
If you haven’t set up your Gravatar Profile yet, just log in to Gravatar.com using your WordPress.com username and password and fill out your details or read these instructions first. If you don’t have a WordPress.com account yet, you can sign up for Gravatar here.
October 6th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
This is cool! Love it!
October 6th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Great idea, but I’m not quite sure I want everyone to know who I am lol
October 6th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Nice
. Should be very useful for blogs with a lot of comments like this one. It’s almost like your online business card 
.
October 6th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Mbuso. thanks for the info on gravatar. Setting off to set me own.
Lebo
October 6th, 2010 at 7:29 pm
Interesting, looking forward to checking it out.
October 6th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
super cool!
October 6th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Hey Scott! You might want to run spiel cheek.
October 6th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Spiel cheek done and redone – Thanks Daniel.
October 6th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
wow thats cool. This feature will save time by providing person’s info just by moving around.
October 6th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
Hey this is really cool! I’m off to try it all out!
October 6th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
For those of us who don’t want more moving parts and bloated pageloads, is there a way to opt-out of this ‘feature’? It’s a little too reminiscent of snap.com’s beloved “Snap Shots” (circa 2007).
October 6th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
We spent significant time trying to minimize false positives for when these cards appear. There’s a well timed delay, so errant mouseovers where you happen to cross over a Gravatar are very unlikely to cause them to fire.
We do provide a way to turn them off on your own blog if you don’t want them. Go to Dashboard-Settings-Discussion, and look under Avatar.
October 6th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
We also just added a feature that allows blog visitors to never see Hovercards across all of WordPress.com.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/gravatar-hovercards/#to-turn-off-hovercards-for-all-wordpress-com-sites
October 6th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
Very nice! I guess it’s time to make sure the info on my Gravatar profile is updated. Thank you!
October 6th, 2010 at 7:47 pm
Nice work. What will be really awesome is if this makes it way into WordPress.org as a plugin, or better yet in the core.
October 6th, 2010 at 7:47 pm
Hey, what’s the chance of getting this as a plugin for self-hosted blogs?
October 6th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
We’ll be bringing this to self-hosted blogs in the very near future.
October 6th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
What a great new feature
October 6th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
Wow, this is really cool! Props to WP for this! Me like!
October 6th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
This… is…. awesome!
October 6th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
… just read that I can switch them off! Whew – cancel rant!
October 6th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
i am having an averse reaction to that feature at this moment
October 6th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
This can be very interesting!.
October 6th, 2010 at 8:08 pm
I think this just killed off Google profiles for me. Not sure if I should even update it after this.
October 6th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
One last (annoying) comment. Any word about bringing this over for IntenseDebate fans?
October 6th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
This is a really cool feature, so is this working now?? Hover over my icon and find out!! Well done (again) wordpress
October 6th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Sweet!
October 6th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
WOOOW!
October 6th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Looks nice: will give this a try. Thanks WordPress
October 6th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
This would be even better if I could change my account name on wordpress – except of course I cannot, because I own the blog with the name I would want (and apparently doing a SQL UPDATE statement is totally impossible, according to the support staff)
October 6th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
Wow another new great feature just another great reason why WP.com is the best free blogging platform on the net!!!
October 6th, 2010 at 8:56 pm
cool!
October 6th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Cool!
October 6th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Love it! WordPress just ups the ante everyday.
October 6th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
I guess I’m in the minority, but I don’t like the distraction and annoyance of having a gravatar pop up when I’m trying to read a comment. I think this should have been allowed by the blogger, not installed automatically without blogger approval. I know how to turn it off, I just think I should have made the decision in the first place about it.
Kathleen
October 6th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
As you mentioned, blog owners can turn off Hovercards for their own sites. We also just added a feature that allows blog visitors to never see Hovercards across all of WordPress.com.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/gravatar-hovercards/#to-turn-off-hovercards-for-all-wordpress-com-sites
October 6th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
I really like this–congrats on another great feature.
October 6th, 2010 at 9:21 pm
Now that I’m here, I may as well get all the way in to all this new technology. Yikes, I feel like I’m ‘with the program’ all of a sudden . . . Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
(Ooops, you don’t really need to know I’m old, now, do you?)
October 6th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
and the cool stuff keeps on coming from the wordpress crew!!!
Thanks!
October 6th, 2010 at 9:35 pm
Great idea!
October 6th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
I think the “Social Media Map” in my sidebar is about to get a *serious* update. “-)
October 6th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
This is pretty cool.
Plus, it actually forced me to write something in my gravatar profile…
October 6th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
I just pray and hope that you guys don’t get tired of rolling out newer and more awesome features.
October 6th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
Cool! You gies always have great ideas. Thanks
October 6th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
I don’t see twitter, linkedin and other social networking links. Just personal blog/site links appear on hovercard.
October 6th, 2010 at 10:24 pm
We only show information that a user has chosen to share openly, so if they haven’t entered it, we won’t show it
October 6th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
Wow cool
October 6th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
wow. this is cool!
October 6th, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Brilliant!
October 6th, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Lovely implementation.
October 6th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
This could be really good, but those of us who are concerned about their Internet profile for professional reasons, may not want to identify ourselves my name… I’m sure there’s a workaround though.
October 6th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Yup. Just don’t include anything in your profile that you don’t want anyone to see
October 6th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
Really cool.
October 6th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Just an update . . . This has inspired/forced me to catch some typos in my bio and add some more info. to make things interesting. This is a spot I never would have given a second thought to since it was basically hidden on my dashboard . . . once I hovered over it in ‘comments’, though, the errors and omissions were glaring.
THANK YOU!
(Now all we need is spell-check for comments, lol.)
October 6th, 2010 at 11:50 pm
I spotted this just this evening and would have been pleased about it if the image weren’t so big! It obscured most of the comment area. Maybe they could be made smaller? Also…. do they have to be black? It’s such a depressing ‘colour’.
October 6th, 2010 at 11:58 pm
Hovercards are roughly the size of a business card, just enough information to show who you are and what you do. They’re also only as big as the amount of information we have. So for example your card is nice and slim, since you don’t have much information in your profile.
Since the cards appear everywhere, we’re limited to neutral colors so they’ll look ok in most places. I’d go for hot pink myself, or polka dots, but that might clash with the themes many people have chosen for their blogs. Or not
October 7th, 2010 at 12:15 am
Awesomeness once again.
October 7th, 2010 at 12:34 am
This is awesome feature…
October 7th, 2010 at 1:07 am
really nice Gravatar Hovercards but my wp profil is active
October 7th, 2010 at 1:20 am
Interesting!!!
October 7th, 2010 at 1:24 am
Very nice!
October 7th, 2010 at 1:50 am
so cool..
October 7th, 2010 at 2:25 am
Yes, an online business card. Way cool! Now I have to FIX my Gravatar info. Need, more, hours, in, the, day!
October 7th, 2010 at 2:50 am
This is quite an interesting feature, thanks guys! =D
October 7th, 2010 at 3:17 am
KKKOOOOLL!!
October 7th, 2010 at 3:36 am
This is great!!
October 7th, 2010 at 4:34 am
I just hovered over myself and got excited, lol. thanks again!
October 7th, 2010 at 4:56 am
Excellent feature!
October 7th, 2010 at 5:04 am
Very cooooool =D Nice one!
October 7th, 2010 at 5:24 am
I love the black. Classy. Does this work with those who comment without leaving a gravatar? I’m having some issues with a few commenters and dead links appearing in emails. This nice little gadget has the potential to stop that nonsense, as well as some with multi-sites who argue with themselves, comment on “each other’s” sites and posts, then leave “opposing” poiints of views on the sites of others. Now, understand, some of this is funny when you know who is doing this, but I have an issue with deadlinks or links that never load and all I have is blank screen, then my computer freezes. I have a real serious issue with that, in fact.
Awesome again, Sir!!
Wish my other “family” were as great and caring.
Shalom!
October 7th, 2010 at 5:31 am
Hello WP & The Gravatar Team. I like how Gravatar is shaping up but there’s still a lot of ground to cover. I am using Google Public Profiles and it enables people to get in touch with me without me revealing my ID. I think you guys should do something similar since getting in touch with a person through “Gravatar” means you have to volunteer your mail/gtalk/chat ID. I use a personal one but am not too comfortable sharing it with people i don’t know. There should be a “SEND MESSAGE”/”Yahoo Pingbox” option with a nice “email/chat icon” to make it prominent (sizing options will be very welcome) while also making it visually appealing. Thanks again though. Keep up the good work. Salil, IN
October 8th, 2010 at 12:41 am
Over time, we’ll probably be adding to/tweaking the content in hovercards and Gravatar Profiles in general. Thanks for the suggestion
PS: As a hack, you can add whatever links you want to your Gravatar profile. A contact form, for example?
October 7th, 2010 at 5:35 am
I love it! A great way to advertise yourself in WordPress! Just check your Gravatar info first to make sure that there’s nothing showing that you wouldn’t want others to see or access.
October 7th, 2010 at 5:44 am
Really cool!
October 7th, 2010 at 6:22 am
Hi Scott,
Can I have a Gravatar Hovercard pop up for my own Gravatar Widget on my Sidebar ?
Till now, visitors have had to click on my Gravatar photo in the widget to reach my Gravatar.
My Blog is hosted on WordPress.com with the domain name http://mitaroygoahotel.com
Cheers
Mihir
October 7th, 2010 at 9:45 am
I’ve just checked and it looks as though your Gravatar is showing a hovercard.
October 7th, 2010 at 6:26 am
looks interesting ….
i might try this
October 7th, 2010 at 6:41 am
I got lucky with this feature! I accidentally hovered over my gravatar and found out that I need to update my profile! Thanks!!
October 7th, 2010 at 6:59 am
Brilliant!
October 7th, 2010 at 7:10 am
saw it. love it. you guys are awesome. thanks as always! i <3 WP!
October 7th, 2010 at 7:20 am
Hovercard is cool ~ ~ ~ ~ thank….
October 7th, 2010 at 7:37 am
smile contents!
October 7th, 2010 at 8:35 am
As if you’re reading my mind ..
wow .. Amazing feature .. Now we can get to others press through gravatar .. ^^
Thanks
October 7th, 2010 at 9:12 am
cool one. hats off… salute
October 7th, 2010 at 9:21 am
So when is this gonna be rolled to self-hosted wordpress.org blogs?
October 7th, 2010 at 9:43 am
We’ll be rolling out self-hosted support very soon, we can’t commit to a specific date just yet.
October 7th, 2010 at 9:38 am
very useful. thx!
October 7th, 2010 at 9:47 am
hey thats fun!!
~thakx WP! xD
October 7th, 2010 at 9:54 am
This is pretty cool, although at first I had no idea what was happening, haha
October 7th, 2010 at 10:10 am
nice one!
October 7th, 2010 at 10:19 am
Awesome! Now I’m checking every comment in this post just to see people’s hovercards. Love it!
October 7th, 2010 at 10:39 am
Pop-ups suck. The rest of the internet learned this some years ago. Hopefully you will catch up one day.
October 7th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
I would argue the opposite, they are becoming a fairly common UI practice. Many major sites have implemented some form of hovercard in the past year including Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Linked In, and lots more.
October 7th, 2010 at 10:39 am
This is a great idea. Knowing your demographic plays a big role in good writing. And sometimes the demographic you aim for is not the one who responds. I like the fact that I can get my reality straight so easily.
October 7th, 2010 at 10:42 am
Awesome!
October 7th, 2010 at 10:43 am
what a really cool job, thx a lot
October 7th, 2010 at 10:53 am
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October 7th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Great! And I’d really love to read a global vision-statement of Automattic for WordPress(.com): Where are you, where are we going to? Slowly but surely it feels like some kind of a distributed social network, a blogged network of networks…
October 7th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Great job! Another cool feature!!
October 7th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Nice feature.
October 7th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
I love it!
Unfortunately it doesn’t take me to the Blogger’s Blog, but hopefully everyone will update their profiles.
WordPress Rocks!
October 7th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
nice
October 7th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Simply Awesome!
October 7th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Sorry to rain on everyone’s parade, and Gravatars are seem to be getting on the the way now – for me. Gravatars may be kinda “neat”, but both the Authors and Gravatars widgets now force any click to the Gravatar page. What if I want to have my profile aurthor image to link to a custom URL – like it used to do. The custom URL seems to be ignored now.
How do I have my profile/author picture link to a custom URL of my choice?
October 8th, 2010 at 12:33 am
We’re working on getting everything squared away. Thanks for the feedback.
October 7th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Very cool, thanks for sharing, will look into this further to see what it is all about.
October 7th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Great idea!!! I second the guy that likened it to an online business card. Pretty awesome stuff:)
http://coffeecounsel.wordpress.com/