Avatar powered recent comments

If you have the recent comments widget on your blog you might have noticed a small change to it this afternoon. Now, next to each comment link is the avatar of the person who left the comment.

By default the widget will display 48x48px avatars but if it’s not to your tastes, then visit your widgets page and you can change the size of those images, and even disable them if that suits.

Happy Fourth of July to all our US users, and as Automattic is an international outfit, there’s still someone here bashing away at the keys and keeping an eye on things!


Missing out on the latest WordPress.com developments? Enter your email below to receive future announcements direct to your inbox. An email confirmation will be sent before you will start receiving notifications—please check your spam folder if you don't receive this.

Join 110.1M other subscribers

199 Comments

Comments are closed.

  1. Stas Sushkov

    You guyz are fantastic… I was on my way to announce this feature before it appears on official blog :D. Great improvement… we don’t need no mybloglog anymore!!! Anyway I hate that service….
    Congrats!!!

    Like

  2. Christian

    thx

    Like

  3. ChenZhen

    I was going to ask about the size, cause they seemed a little big. Nice touch!

    BTW- I thought it would be cool if we could change or customize the generic avatar that gets left for those outside WP (or for WPers who haven’t picked an avatar). Just thought that might add some more flair.

    Like

  4. Stiletto

    This rocks! Thanks!

    Like

  5. Cem Basman

    Oops, just saw it in my comments 😉

    Like

  6. Rae

    Cool. And thanks for the Happy 4th ^_^.

    Like

  7. David W. Boles

    Loving!

    It!

    Killer!

    Cool!

    THANK!

    YOU!

    Like

  8. ducatiragazzo

    thanks for the info. copy and out. 1040

    Like

  9. blayde

    Great feature, thanks 😀

    Like

  10. MadMark

    I saw it before you announce it! Looks very pretty!! Thank you!

    But some new themes?!

    Like

  11. jags

    nice one. you rock! thanks.

    Like

  12. Dream Catcher

    this is dAMN coooooooool!!!

    loved it!!!

    Like

  13. blessed1

    I like this new feature! Great job!

    Like

  14. Dream Catcher

    but how the avatar of other blogs showing up???

    Like

  15. Lauren

    It makes for a festive front page for those of us who put the widget out there, but there are a lot of ghost faces from commenters who either are not with WordPress or do not upload avatars. Thanks for always thinking of us! Happy Fourth.

    Like

  16. californiablogging

    Happy fourth of July to you too!

    Like

  17. Sandra

    pretty good

    Like

  18. Jerry

    very cool …

    Like

  19. ╬æ♣♫☼•♥Te Puteo Acá♥•☼♫♣æ╬

    sUPER sUPER cOOL!!

    Like

  20. haryiips

    great boys…. wordpress always comes up with new ideas .. which a commen bloggers wants.. to have in his or her blog….

    Kudos to WordPress.

    Like

  21. [KwZ]

    It looks awesome… I wonder if we could have our avatars on each post like you guys.

    Like

  22. Max

    Thanks a lot…it looks very nice 🙂

    Like

  23. pleite

    Yes, it’s nice. Does it take a while to update, though, or is that just a teething glitch?

    Like

  24. Julio Fragoso

    this is awesome… wordpress everytime doing the best

    Like

  25. Alasdair

    nice 😉

    Like

  26. Onasis

    Thanks.

    Like

  27. فتاة الحزن

    thanks guyz i like it

    Like

  28. Fernando T.

    Very nice but I’m with ChenZhen : “I was going to ask about the size, cause they seemed a little big”

    Like

  29. Fernando T.

    Sorry, did’t read well. You can resize the icons.

    ¡Great!

    Like

  30. brahnamin

    thanks for including the disable option . . . ugh

    Like

  31. abu ameerah

    i noticed it a few hours ago. thanks WordPress!

    Like

  32. latilen

    Thank you very much :*

    Like

  33. celebes

    Very very cool 😉

    Like

  34. ann

    thanks for allowing us to not have the avatars on our site. Most of my readers aren’t wordpress users (silly folk!) and the blank people next to their names looked, well, icky! So thank you again for instituting so many awesome things, and for allowing us to chose whether we love them or not. You guys do, in fact, rule!

    Like

  35. R J

    Great job. It was a pleasant surprise to see the avatar. It has been suggested in the comments above, the choice for non-WPers to choose an avatar from limited range would be a good idea.

    I never really liked MyBlogLog. This is much better.

    A Big Bang for a Happy 4th!

    Like

  36. uway

    mybloglog is a very good service and there improving it daily. I like having two options for my avatar

    Like

  37. The Bagel of Everything

    Looks like there are changes to other widgets as well.
    I like it!

    Like

  38. abarclay12

    What if you have an ex-boyfriend who’s avatar you don’t want to see in your comments widgit? Can the admin at wordpress somehow photoshop him to look like the devil so that I feel better about it?

    Like

  39. Manos S.

    nice…

    Like

  40. timethief

    Thank you so much for ensuring that this feature could be disabled.

    Like

  41. Tia

    Ooh…. sorry, i really, really don’t like it… probably because most of the people who’ve commented don’t have avatars and the blank ones are too bright for my site. Maybe if the default were more low key… it could be ok at 32×32, but for now I’m switching it off.

    Like

  42. phoenix

    How cow, that was a complete surprise! Awesome.

    Like

  43. tofubaby

    Yey! I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. 🙂 Thanks for this widget.

    Like

  44. Jope

    Good idea!

    I’d wish comments would appear in small caps, tough…

    Like

  45. storymode

    This is a beautiful addition to the mix. Thanks so much, WP team! ^^

    Like

  46. ŢĄĦŮ208

    Oh great, I’m getting rid of them from my blog because they’re annyoing, though, I still kind of like them

    Like

  47. folone

    tnx. not a user of this feature, but it looks nice.

    Like

  48. kOoLiNuS

    thank you guys ! a nice addiction !

    {ps = they recorgnize the Gravatar service too, or simply registered WP.com users ?}

    Like

  49. ladymacaran

    gala grande!

    Like

  50. goldcoaster

    Nice but I am glad I can switch it off.

    Like

  51. nerdii

    I love it! Thank you.

    Like

  52. miquie's crew

    you guys are AWESOME!!!

    Like

  53. argentin

    Good idea to colorize a bit more the blog…I just shortened them from 48 to 16, They are tiny now! thanks…ou merci pour ceux qui savent lire ceci! 😉

    Like

  54. Kevin

    Glad to see that there are options for resizing and disabling this.

    Like

  55. Mia
  56. Pingback: WordPress Wednesday News: WordCamp Filling Up Fast, WordPress 2.2.1 Mandatory Upgrade, Hot WordPress Themes and Plugins, WordPress Security, and WordPress Nerds Blog Naked : The Blog Herald
  57. EscRiBiTioNiSt*

    Thank you Donncha.. Nice eye 🙂

    BTW, when I want to fill in the background colours.. I have to fill in the colour HTML code, right?

    Like

  58. antosamudra

    wow…. nice improvement 🙂 …

    Like

  59. 37prime

    Just want to see my own Avatar to the left of this comment.

    Like

  60. ccsx

    It’s very wonderful!!
    Thank you so much.

    Like

  61. harmonia

    Love it! Posted about it! I agree with a few others with some more theme options when you have a chance!!! 🙂 Thank you!!!! WP Rocks!

    Like

  62. Rex

    Great job!!
    Keep up the good work

    Like

  63. jeffchin21

    I dig it! Makes the comments section on my site much easier to read too! I agree, you should let non-WP’ers upload some avatars, or at least choose from a generic bank of avatars.

    Like

  64. Bing Cheng

    very nice implementation of avatars. could you add a “blank” avatar instead of the ghost one? like chenzhen said in comment #3

    Like

  65. onemorecup

    Just another classy addition that separates WordPress from the rest!

    Cheers!

    Like

  66. kisumi

    Great Job!
    You Guys Rock!!

    Like

  67. dumsperospiro

    thanks from here too!

    Like

  68. Nita

    I don’t like this feature. The avatars are far too big. And as many of my commentators don’t have blogs of their own, it looks awful…grey non-faces. Please have an option where we can turn this off.

    Like

  69. Rattling the Kettle

    Really excellent change. I love it. Thanks!!

    Like

  70. ajjj

    i live in the usa. happy fourth of july. and look at my avatar an american flag, people.

    Like

  71. axireaxi

    great job!
    it’s very coool…

    regards,
    adi.n

    Like

  72. Jolene

    Great addition. Thanks.

    Like

  73. archiearchive

    Quite a few of my blog-friends are using non-Wordpress hosts (silly, silly people!). Would it be possible to have a reciprocal arrangement with other blog-hosts so that avatars may spread across the hosts? There are probably very good commercial reasons not to do this, but technically it would be an interesting challenge.

    (Applying reverse psychology – once it becomes possible, someone will want to try it 🙂 )

    Like

  74. Nita

    One more thing to add. I feel like a fool after this new feature came into being. Mostly its my mug out there in the Recent Comments! 😦

    Like

  75. zero2x

    good

    Like

  76. camotecutechronicles

    Its great!! i like it. Happy 4th of july!!! ^^,

    Like

  77. Jim

    very cool! 🙂 like it.

    Like

  78. nin_ers

    please!, im from argentina, and i think if you whant put something new, please put something useful, the avatar for the comments is so ugly!, i put off that upgrade.

    think in what the bloggers need, anyone need the avatar in the windget of the comments, for example, i need put adsense of google in a post, but i can’t. And that makesme ungry!

    hi from my part!

    Like

  79. The Hot Potato

    Hey, cool feature. I noticed though that the avatar for a wordpress blogger is now missing from her comments. Her image was there before, and now it’s just a generic avatar. Maybe she got rid of her avatar? I haven’t asked. The avatar for our own comments look great.

    Like

  80. Jonathan Tardif

    Sweetness!

    Keep those ideas flowin’!

    Like

  81. yunahalo

    YAY! Badass… Thanks!

    Like

  82. Rade

    Heheeey this is great!! 🙂

    Thanks again for your good work guys!

    Like

  83. Nita

    This is the third time I am commenting, sorry! Its just that I am very disturbed with this new feature where I can see just my face in the comments. I have temporarily removed this widget. I feel really bad about that. I will get it up ocassionally when people with blogs make comments.

    Like

  84. Briggie

    I love it! I really like that you are constantly looking to update, improve and enhance WP. Is there a way to require WP users/commenters to use some form of avatar to avoid the ghosty ones? Keep up the good work, WP Rocks!!

    Like

  85. corrupted mind

    Doesn’t seem to be working perfectly though. One time I see the most recentl comments and other times I don’t.

    Awesome improvement though..

    How ’bout some more widgets?

    Like

  86. bovanne

    Looks nice and it seems to give a certain dynamic to those pages who have the comment widget activated but what will happen for those who have no uploaded avatar? I mean yeah, I can see that right now it displays that gray contour, but will you work on that also or it will remain the same? ’cause I was thinking, for the sake of aesthetics at least [ 😛 ], that it would be nice to make the colour of the contour match that of the theme each member selected. Just my two cents. Anyway, looks cool what you did untill now.

    P.S: Happy 4th of July for all you Americans.

    Like

  87. qqqqssss

    Nice, and with opt-out option for anyone who hates change, whoever that might be!

    I didn’t notice this until I saw the news feed since I don’t usually get comments 😛

    Like

  88. G

    Very cool feature! job well done!!

    Like

  89. barnux

    Fantastic! 10Q!

    Like

  90. Sylvaine Vaucher

    Your is pretty cool…also my thanks to WP…for all what they propose.

    Like

  91. coolsmurf

    very cool, i love to see pictures…

    Like

  92. Holger

    The best feature about this new feature is, that you can disable the avatars 😉

    Like

  93. Sunny

    Thanks for the great add-on.
    I agree with above comment that it would be better if non-wordpress users could use external avatars.
    Keep up the good work!
    Cheers!

    Like

  94. earthlinc

    Nice features. Love it. Tks

    Like

  95. comunicati

    it is very cool, thank you, but i think there are still some problems when we click on a post to see its comments: i guess the widget creates some confusion with all the last comments and that single post comments.
    i don’t know… maybe it is beta!

    Like

  96. anas

    Really good. Just missing and wnating it before. Thanks guys.

    Like

  97. brokenman

    great work. keep it up guys! 🙂

    Like

  98. klippundklar

    It’s a nice feature for some people, but I don’t need it. So thank you for the alternative to turn it off completly !!!

    Like

  99. paurong

    very great!
    tae.

    Like

  100. sv

    great! 😀

    Like

Create your new blog or website for free

Get Started