With the release of Jetpack 3.9, we’re introducing a brand new module, as well as a lot of improvements for several existing Jetpack modules.
Jetpack’s new Sitemaps Module
Jetpack already includes features like Subscriptions and Publicize, to let your readers know whenever you publish a new post on your site. You can now let Search Engines know, too!
What are sitemaps? Sitemaps are files that list each post and page that should be indexed by search engines like Google or Bing.
Once this new module is activated, two sitemaps will be created: a generic sitemap, available at yoursitename.com/sitemap.xml, as well as a News Sitemap, available at yoursitename.com/news-sitemap.xml. The News sitemap is useful if you want your posts to appear in Google News.
You can learn more about this new module here.
A new Skype Sharing Button
Now that Skype offers a Skype button, we’ve added it to Jetpack’s Sharing module. To add it to your site, head over to Settings > Sharing in your dashboard, and drag the new Skype button to your list of sharing buttons.
Social Menu
Social Menu is a new tool that is available for all theme developers. It allows site owners to create a new menu location which is used to display links to Social Media Profiles.
To learn how to add Social Menu support to your theme, you can follow the instructions on our support page.
And More…
This release also adds its fair share of improvements to existing modules, as well as bug fixes:
- Added new options to allow management of users on your site directly from WordPress.com or from the WordPress.com Desktop app.
- Made several changes to Photon to improve compatibility with WordPress 4.4. Custom image sizes are handled better now and all responsive image sizes will be properly displayed when using the Photon module.
- Photon is now enabled by default on sites using HTTPS. You don’t need to use a filter to enjoy Photon on your HTTPS site anymore!
- Added support for Wistia oEmbeds.
- Fixed some issues with long album and track IDs in the BandCamp shortcode. Also added support for two new parameters:
tracksandesig. - And a lot more! You can check the full changelog here.
Once again, a big thank you to all Jetpack Contributors:
Alex Shiels, Andrew Duthie, Andrew Ozz, Andy Peatling, Biser Perchinkov, Brandon Kraft, Dan Robert, Derek Smart, Dion Hulse, Miguel Polfliet, Eduardo Reveles, Elio Rivero, Eric Binnion, George Stephanis, Hiroshi Urabe, Igor Zinovyev, Jeff Golenski, Jennifer M. Dodd, Jeremy Herve, Jesse Friedman, Joen Asmussen, Joey Kudish, Jonathan Sadowski, Joseph Scott, Justin Shreve, Kat Hagan, Kelly Dwan, Lance Willett, Matt Wiebe, Michael Cain, Miguel Lezama, Rachel Baker, Richard Muscat, Rocco Tripaldi, Sam Hotchkiss, Scott Grant, Steve Seear, Stéphane Boisvert, Takashi Irie, Thomas Guillot, and Xiao Yu.
