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Jetpack 2.0 Update Adds 4 New Plugin Modules

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by

Brad Dalton

If you’re a Jetpack plugin fan, Matt Mullenweg from WordPress.com has just sent you an email to let you know his Jetpack plugin has been updated again.

If you’re a non user, Jetpack is one of the most popular free plugins for WordPress. It includes an increasing range of other plugin modules which can be activated or deactivated at will.

In my opinion, the best free WordPress plugin which is also included in my top 7 essential plugins for WordPress Beginners.

Looks like a few more standalone plugins are being gobbled up by Jetpack which is fine if you use the plugin.

4 Plugin Modules Added

So whats new in Jetpack 2.0?

  1. Post by Email
  2. Publicize
  3. Photon
  4. Infinite Scroll

Post by Email

Post by Email Using JetpackThis feature has been around for awhile and i have already written about it before. Adding the function to WordPress simply makes it a loot easier to setup.

Simple click a button and you get a secret email address which you send your posts to for publishing on your site.

You’ll find a new link in your Profile screen where you can activate Post by Email. Otherwise go to your Dashboard > Jetpack and click Configure in the Posts by Email module.

Read the tutorial about how to setup, configure and use the Post by Email feature in Jetpack.

Publicize

Use Publicize to share your posts automatically to your social networksThe sharing features in Jetpack like Sharedaddy are only getting better everytime they update this plugin. You’ll love the new Publicize feature as it enables you to auto post to Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Tumblr and Linkedin.

Automattic will be adding more social networks to this plugin soon.

You may already share your posts manually to your social media networks or use another plugin for this job.

Read the tutorial about how to setup configure and use Publicize in Jetpack.

Photo

Photon image CDN for WordPress.com bloggersLet WordPress.com cache your images for faster loading using the WordPress.com Content Delivery Network CDN.

This reduces server resources and decreases loading times especially for your images.

Not only will your sites pages and posts load faster resulting in a better user experience for your readers, you’ll also save money on your hosting plan.

Read more about using the WordPress.com CDN service to cache your images.

Infinite Scroll

Infinite Scroll Loads the next posts in WordPressAnother good plugin which has been gobbled up by Jetpack.

How does infinite scroll work? When your reader approaches the end of the archives page, the nest set of posts will be displayed rather than having to click a next page link.

This plugin module may not work on all themes. Click the learn more link to see if it does. This is what you’ll get if it doesn’t:

At this time, your theme, XYZ Child Theme, doesn’t support Infinite Scroll. Unlike other Jetpack modules, Infinite Scroll needs information from your theme to function properly.

Until your theme supports Infinite Scroll, you won’t be able to activate this module.

Learn how to add support for Infinite Scroll to your theme.

Conclusion

Jetpack is an excellent free plugin for WordPress which only gets better every time it gets updated.

Thanks to everyone at Automattic who contributed to the development of this plugin and ongoing support.

Comments

6 responses to “Jetpack 2.0 Update Adds 4 New Plugin Modules”

  1. David McDougal Avatar
    David McDougal

    My only concern with JP getting more and more invasive is what happens when they start demanding payment for these things. The photon service is awesome, but seriously they are taking over CDN capabilities that people pay maxcdn, s3, cdn77 etc for now. They either are making so much bank on every paying client with wordpress.com that they are pull a google and offer it all for free or this is the start of a paywall mentality where they hook you in deep and then start nickle and diming you to death.

    I just wish that jetpack worked more like the woodojo system. You install it, and then you activate just the modules you want. That way you are not bogging down the site with features you do not want. I realize that there is Marks manual plugin but that only stops NEW features. If you are doing a new install then bang they are all there.

    With all that said am I stopping using jetpack on my client sites. Probably not. The features are nice, and they add vallue. I also have a higher trust factor that the longer term reliability of these plugins will be present since they are now owned or pushed by Automattic aside from Joe programmer. I have started to nearly 85% go with premium plugins from rocketgenius, studiopress, pippin and other quality programmers that stand behind their products long term.

    1. Brad Dalton Avatar
      Brad Dalton

      hahahaha. Good comment David.

      I noticed Matt Mullenweg wrote a small line at the end of his email today “shared countless hours of testing, feedback, and criticism.”

      There’s been lots of discussion about this so it will be interesting to see what happens.

      I’ve warned about using linking services which are hosted on other people’s servers. What happens when you uninstall the plugin. Do the links break?

      That’s why i wrote about the YOURS plugin which creates your own self hosted link shortener.

      Matt did mention that some of the modules need to be hosted on his servers so i can understand this. He’s given away a lot for free already and i think this wouldn’t be the case if someone else owned Automattic.

      I’m the same with the premium and theme specific plugins like Genesis plugins and am really enjoying using Pippins easy content types plugin which i’ll write about soon.

      Thanks for the feedback David.

      1. David McDougal Avatar
        David McDougal

        I use YOURLS everyday… wish I could integrate it better with some misc services, but hey it works and I am in control. i use infinitewp for the same reason.

        I have not played with ECPT but I use easy downloads and restricted content pro all the time. I may have to check out ECPT.

        I know that Matt would love to give away the world. I know that a company like Automattic has to make money also. I paid for vaultpress for sometime before I started using comcure and infinitewp. I still push clients to vaultpress if they want drop dead automated backups and full support from WP. So, there are avenues where they are making clear income, and like google the altuism only extends as far and as long as it is not too much of a burden to maintain (*cough* feedbuner *cough*) I agree with the idea of “what happens when I turn this off, does everything stop” rule. I will have to apply that even to things like Gravity Forms, and various Genesis Connect plugins.

        Anyway, keep up the good writeups. I enjoy reading your site and have way to many bookmarks of reference points from here. You appeal to a large audience, and I love the way the entire WP eco-system speaks anyway and everywhere with cander.

        1. Brad Dalton Avatar
          Brad Dalton

          I’ve written this huge post about ECPT but still haven’t published it because its hard to explain in text. Need to add a video.

          I love the way you can install it on a site which already uses custom post types like Agency theme and then you can modify and customize the child theme’s custom fields and taxonomies. Really cool.

          1. David McDougal Avatar
            David McDougal

            HOLY COW!!!!

            I do a number of RE sites and they are a pain to modify. I am all over that… Pippin has a sale NOW!

          2. Brad Dalton Avatar
            Brad Dalton

            Thought you’d like that.

            That theme was made using that plugin as well. You can also copy all the code after you’ve created all the custom post types and paste it into a plugin or child theme. Check out the video.

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