Today’s post is dedicated to Chuck Norris: the man, the myth, the legend, and the star in our demo of a brand-new feature: Blavatars.
“What-atars?” you say. Blavatars! Blog + avatars.
As the incomparable Nikolay explains in the video below, your blavatar automatically becomes your favicon: the little icon that displays next to your blog’s URL in a browser’s web address bar. It’ll also show up next to your pingbacks in the comments section of other blogs.
To get a blavatar for your blog, just go to Settings in your dashboard and upload an image as your Blog Picture. After you upload, you can crop as you like. Save and you’re all set.
WordPress.com News 
Will the avatar replace the default icon in the favicon position? Or will it be still the WordPress logo?
Yep! Your blavatar will appear there instead of the logo when you’ve successfully uploaded your new image.
Sweet, thanks for this WordPress!
innovations like these is what keeps me with wp, keep them up!
i added a blavatar of me on my blog
Heather
: If you want to make your avatar work also as your blavatar but you have not saved the picrure you used to create your avatar you have to start over. Wouldn’t it be easier if the user can use the same picture saved in his ‘media’ section? Just asking–don’t shoot.
If you haven’t saved your image to your computer or your WordPress media library, you can right-click and save your avatar to your desktop to then add it as your blavatar. Yours is located here.
why are the comments always so extremely positive. Waiting for years on your favicon?? Darn, host your own blog and you can make it yourself…. Anyhow, I wish people would comment more than a thumbs up and tell the WP team how to improve stuff. Like ‘that girl again’. Go girl! Or is the WP team just silently suppressing ‘negative’ comments? Let’s see if this one goes through…
One suggestion: please get a native English speaker or at least someone I can understand to narrate.
A good point, and one we’ve been discussing. Be on the lookout for a post about using comments as a space for a more developed dialogue in the coming week.
Very cool! Now let me see if it works!
Chuck rocks!
you guys rock; I hate Yahoo 360
Heather: smart workaround, thanks, but what I was trying to point out was that it would be way nicer and quicker if you could choose a file from your already uploaded files without saving them to your desktop. Convenient for people working on a computer that’s not theirs to mess with.
This is cool!
Nice
Blavatar? What happened to/is wrong with Favicon? Cause thats what it is more or less, you may try to brand it with Gravatar as Automattic own that, but it’s a freaking favicon
It is a favicon, but added functionality of resizing, showing up for pingbacks, and some other places around WP.com.
“Blavatar”???? Could it be that someone needs to cut their caffeine intake? 😉
I for one, Like my new Blavatar. Thank You
Oh yea, Stupendous job on the admin page.
Goodie. Now I get to have my fave avatar playing alongside my blog. Fun!
That’s great!!!!!!!
waw.. that’s cool 😀
I thought I already had something that appeared like that…. my icon of choice seems to appear wherever I post anyhow…
You guys just keep on delivering…
Awesomeness.
Ciao
Horay! Thank you so much!!
just great kudos to the team!!!:)
Brilliant! This is totally awesome!!!
i’ll try…. 😉
cool cool cool! thank you!
Had to chime in with some tangentially related info on Chuck Norris 🙂 http://pickfu.com/66INDE
Thanks
thank you nice feature 🙂
Ole!! Was awaiting this feature for sometime now. Thanks WP…you guys are the best!
awesomelicious
I love you WordPress. I want to have your virtual babies.
Thanks WP!
Done & done.
(Hat tip)
Very nice…
A “use my Gravatar” option might be nice..
Hilarious…and useful!
don’t look a gift mouth in the horse
….kisses from the stones that got killed by a bird
Great! Now if I could just get rid of my domain name, I could make it look like a real website.
You can buy a custom domain under upgrades, it’s one of our premium features.
@Heather: So Gravatars are like Blavatars, as they appear next to comments and in the Author widget as well.
This feature is provided by gravatar.com quite a while ago and works perfect with wordpress blogs.
Gravatar is a service of Automattic, just like WordPress.com. Gravatars load as your avatar, not with your favicon or your pingbacks — that’s where blavatars come in.
Done! Thanks…
I’m new to the blog dealio (started today) so I guess this is an “old” feature for me 🙂
I see your are on top of things. Thank you 🙂
To what extent can these handle alpha layers? I seem to have mixed results when uploading images with transparency, including the one I’m using now (the alpha areas seem to be roughly interpreted as black sometimes, where as other times, they have loaded correctly).
It would be really great if this extended to iPhone Web Clips, but overall I’m really happy with this new feature! – r.
It does!
Wow, this is so cool–the name is a bit kooky.
Nice.
THIS IS AWESOME. *_*
I’m totally loving the new freature!
This is a great idea !!! i am going to make one ..yoppiee!!
😉 thanks yaw
Cool … 😉
Thanx WP
Awesome!
excellent! thank you! thank you! thank you! 😀
is it possible to have a different avatar and blavatar? the video says that the blavatar will be the icon of the blog and pings, does this mean that when I make a comment, I could have a different photo when I do that? (if so, then that will be great!). 🙂 thanks
Yes they’re separate.
COOLLLL!!!!! i’m trying now….
you’re the best…. =)
Yes! Finally! I have requested this since the days of public beta on wordpress.com!
Thanks a ton! You rock!
😎
question: for those of us redirecting to another domain, the blavatar isn’t visible. is there a way around this?
Blavatars work for mapped domains, too. It just takes some time for the favicon to show up.
Seems to not be working for me in IE7. Is anyone else having this issue?
Thank you!:D
Thank you!
cool… i’ll try
great!
Cool.
I’m digging on the gravatar thingie.
Thanks! I have really enjoyed WP so far! 🙂
Blavatar 😀 hehe
I used to have a nice photo of me that showed up everywhere. Now there’s either some quilt square or a Miro-esque cartoon figure. Why did you get rid of my pic? And what’s the difference between a Blavatar and the Gravatar that my profile is prompting me for? Why couldn’t you just retain my previous pic for me to use?
Um how long does it take for the Blavatar to go into effect?
It can take several minutes. If you aren’t seeing it after that time, try clearing your cache and deleting your cookies. If that doesn’t work, please contact Support.
Its not working i keep uploading well it says Blog Picture and the favicon not working what am i doing wrong?
My life has changed forever! Neither I, nor anyone here, is exagerrating our excitment in the least! YEEE!
Great..it’s working.
I’m just wondering how this is any different than the feature I used to upload my photo when I joined 4 months ago and have it do all the same things it stated in the video.
Everything in the video, I did when I signed up. No change for me, but I like it nonetheless.
You did that process for avatars, which are a little different. Please see my other replies for a full explanation of the differences.
That great feature, thanks
wicked…
thanks, you guys awesome! 😉
You know what I want? I want my blavatar to be my avatar when it comes to commenting on my own blog, so I’m easily recognisable. Is that possible without changing my Gravatar (because that changes my avatar for ALL my blogs)?
Your avatar is assigned to your username’s profile, which applies for all the blogs on that account. If you’d like a unique avatar for a particular blog, you’ll need to create a new username and then export that blog to the new name.
yipeeee love it, will have to find something that looks striking when it is wee 😉
This is great !!!
Thanks for adding this feature.
Cool! Can you change it periodically or are you stuck with one?
You can change it as often as you like!
Great, more new features.. just what we need..
sweetness our blog loves to use pictures A LOT!! So this could help!
thanks.. been waiting for this..
cool feature. Nifty.
Could someone please explain the difference between the old avatars, the new blavatars, and the gravatars?
Avatars: display next to comments and in your Authors widget. Blavatars: display next to pingbacks and next to your URL in the browser bar. Gravatar: a way to sync your profile images across platforms. See Gravatar.com for more information.
I can only wish that WordPress.org blogs will soon have the ability to take advantage of this idea.
But I have a feeling given the proximity of this feature release and WordPress 2.7 that it will have to be a plugin for now, assuming that it does get released as a feature for WordPress.org blogs.
Yes, the name needs work I think
that’s soooooooooooooo coooooooooool 🙂
I’ve always wanted to add this feature, thanks for making it soooooooooooo easy : )
Hooray! This is just fabulous news:) Have to choose a pic. now; THANKS!
Thank you Chuck Norris.
koooool!!
HF!
apik tenan blavatare…
maturnuwun WP
terima kasih WP
thank you WP
merci WP
danke WP
grazie WP
arigatou gozaimasu WP
I like it. The name is kinda funny though
Oh yes, very nice!