Ronnie Burt Chats About Gravatar’s Evolution and CloudFest Experiences  ## Metadata - Author: [[Do the Woo Media Channel]] - Full Title: Ronnie Burt Chats About Gravatar’s Evolution and CloudFest Experiences - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/88c5539b-f5c4-4984-bd62-333ef3fae317 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Gravatar's Early Origins** - Gravatar started before Facebook and WordPress and was created by Tom Preston-Werner, who later co-founded GitHub. - It was Automatic's first acquisition to maintain this essential service integrated deeply with WordPress. Transcript: Ronnie Burt A very long time, but I don't really know the history of it. How did Gravatar get started? Yeah, it's a good question. Bob WP And I learned a lot when I first started working on Gravatar about a year and a half ago and found out that it is older than Facebook. Wow. Older than WordPress. Okay. And it was started by a guy named Tom Preston Warner. Okay. Who went on to be co-founder of GitHub. Got it. And he was working on Gravatar first before GitHub. And Gravatar really early on solved a very specific problem, which was, first of all, WordPress didn't even have image uploading in WordPress way back in the early version. So there's no way to upload an image. Okay. And so when you wanted to write a post or leave a comment and have your avatar pictured on that post or comment, WordPress couldn't do that. And so Gravatar solved that. Go to gravatar.com, upload your avatar, and then tie that in and WordPress would then show your avatar. So it was baked into WordPress pretty early on when Tom went to work on GitHub. Yeah. It was Automatic's first acquisition. Okay. The very first one. ([Time 0:02:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5e6cc8c0-801e-48ee-8cca-11235b7a4f8d)) - **Gravatar Usage Surges with AI** - The surge in Gravatar usage coincided with ChatGPT using avatars from Gravatar profiles. - This highlights the ongoing importance of owning your digital identity and online presence, linked to your name and avatar. Transcript: Bob WP And, you know, when is it it about two years ago almost a year and a half ago when chat gpt kind of came on the stage and blew up we were seeing our usage stats grow really like what like how Ronnie Burt Much just in general like how much did it did it grow like 10 times kind of what it was like in those first in the first few months? Yeah. Bob WP Of ChatGPT, we're like, what's going on? Why are these stats growing? And realize, well, when everybody that's logging into ChatGPT, it's pulling your avatar from Gravatar. So that got some attention. Yeah, it caught our attention. We were like, maybe there's something here. We have, everybody that has a Gravatar account has always had a free profile for the web associated with that account. It's the original link in bio, well before Linktree and all of those things. And so we've really focused the last year and a half on making those profile pages much more fun to use, cleaner, modern. And a big part of that is how people can own their name on the web. So not just own your avatar and your avatar, but own your name, own your presence, your online digital identity. ([Time 0:04:08](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3a74ae5d-e234-41f4-8e10-907e9c52b1f7)) - **Own Your Digital Identity** - People should own their name and digital identity on the web, not just their avatar. - Having control over your profile and domain ties into your overall online presence and is essential for a future-proof digital identity. Transcript: Bob WP So not just own your avatar and your avatar, but own your name, own your presence, your online digital identity. And Domains has a big piece of that. So that's one reason why I'm here at CloudFest. ([Time 0:05:12](https://share.snipd.com/snip/22b4f0f7-5b62-423f-9a72-8e6e20a0054f)) - **Unexpected Gravatar Accounts** - Many people don't realize they already have a Gravatar account from past WordPress interactions. - Once they discover this, they often update their picture and clean up their profiles. Transcript: Ronnie Burt Around a long time, and it is in many ways more relevant than ever, especially like you're saying in this age of chatGPT pulling information, and it is a way that people can grab that information. Here at CloudFest, what are some of the conversations you're having? Do people know what Gravatar is? Is it new? Bob WP It's pretty funny when some people are like, no, I don't think I have a Gravatar or that I've heard of it. And then they'll go and log in or look up their email address and they do have an account because at some point over the last 20 years, they've left a comment on a WordPress blog or something Somewhere. They thought it was a good idea to have one and they still have it. Yeah. Okay. And once people realize they have it, then they're like, oh, well, I should update it with a new picture or clean up my profile. ([Time 0:05:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6274e7f0-b893-463c-9fc8-21007ff9dccc)) - **Gravatar as an Open Web Profile** - Many businesses have historically depended on closed platforms like Facebook and Twitter APIs. - Gravatar aims to be an open profile database for the web to enable better onboarding and growth for future apps. Transcript: Bob WP And one thing that has me most excited about Gravatar is, you know, there's a lot of businesses like Farmville or Spotify that grew on the backs of Facebook, Open Graph, back in the day. Well, Facebook isn't so open anymore. Lots of businesses have grown on Twitter APIs that no longer exist. We exist to be this open profile for the web, this open database that people can pull into their third parties, and we want the next app, the next game or whatever to be able to bootstrap And grow their, get a better, more customized onboarding experience from Gravatar. ([Time 0:06:14](https://share.snipd.com/snip/33dd2fb4-6ebf-4cb4-a624-b83f39a7b83b)) - **Pitch: Own Your Name on Web** - Everyone should own their name on the web, choosing a domain that suits their identity. - Having multiple web profiles tied to domains is better than siloing presence on proprietary platforms. Transcript: Bob WP Be everybody needs to own their name on the web. Find a domain that makes sense for them, that it doesn't need to be your legal name or anything. You can have multiple presence on the web, multiple profiles or whatever it is that you want. But I think instead of being siloed off into these proprietary companies or different products, having something tied to a domain as a username, I'm really excited about what Blue Sky is doing with username domains, for example. Got it. I think people need to get in there early. Ronnie Burt Yeah. And that's my pitch to everyone. Go find yours. Go find yours. ([Time 0:08:10](https://share.snipd.com/snip/43a48ad5-f7dd-4b75-88d4-d6e9eda4ceeb))