What’s a gravatar?…

For years, I have seen folks using avatars—I even have a few of my own.  But recently I have seen the term “gravatar” popping up and I wondered what that was all about. The new theme that I use on this site is gravatar enabled so I thought that I would check it out.

Turns out that a gravatar is nothing more than a globally recognized avatar, that works with a email address.  Simply put,  it is nothing more than an avatar image that follows you from blog to blog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites, as long as you are using the same email addy. Folks have used them for years on forums to identify their posts and now bloggers can do the same.

Here is how it works. Click HERE to learn more and to sign up to make your very own gravatar. This site makes it easy.  You can load a photo from your computer, an image on the internet or from your webcam (many folks use a photo of themselves). The next step will take you to a screen where you can crop and finish the gravatar. There will be a little box shown on the upload and you simply drag it out (it can be larger than what first shows up)  to include the part of the upload that you would like to use.  After that, just use the crop and finish button and viola! you now have a gravatar! From this point on, if you comment in a blog or forum that is gravatar enabled, your gravatar will show up in your post, as long as you use the email addy that you associated with the gravatar.

Here are a couple of mine that I use.

I look forward to seeing your new gravatars when you comment.