New Features & 2024 Roadmap

WordPress has RSS functionality built in, but we've never utilized this. This is because RSS was a declining technology, so much so that Google and other big tech companies stopped working on and even ended software products related to RSS.

If you aren't familiar with RSS, check out Wikipedia for details. The most important part of the Wiki to this blog post is at the bottom, where it details the end of RSS Readers and services, then the rebound. Here are some statistics on the current use of RSS. We believe people are looking for alternatives to social media and how they've been consuming data compared to previous years. We want to be aware and continually do our best to cater to readers and consumers, meeting them where they are.

So... now you have a shiny new RSS button in the footer of your website 🙂

You can't help but notice QR codes on nearly every product you buy and instruction manuals that come with those products. Just like RSS, QR Codes are actually old technology that is seeing a revival, but for entirely different reasons. You used to need an expensive scanner to read QR codes, but now most cell phones and some cameras can read QR codes, giving that power to everyday consumers.

You may have noticed that you can create a QR code for a website or web page from the address bar of your web browser. Did you know how useful it could be for you? You can add the QR code to your print marketing, business cards, and vehicle signage to make it easy for consumers to visit your website. You can now view and download the QR Code for your website from the footer of your website.

vCard is a file format standard for contact information. You can read more about the specifics on this Wikipedia page. This file type is associated with contact apps on your device. Just like video files are automatically opened by a media player, vCard files have a vcf file extension, which your device knows to open with your contacts app.

We've added a button to download a vCard with the same information available on your contact page. We're doing this to promote returning business and a form of non-invasive marketing by creating a persistent presence with the consumer but without prompting or annoying them.

Included in your vCard is your company logo if one has been provided. For clients that do not yet have a logo, we will add it to your vCard once we have a logo for you.

We had a very low turnout for the Statcounter Analytics software we were paying for, and to get valuable data, it required cookies, which is a big deal with privacy right now. In 2024, we'll develop and publish our own analytics plugin for the WordPress app store. Naturally, our clients will have access to the premium version of this plugin at no additional cost.

We also ended use of UptimeRobot and will be replacing that service with our own status and uptime page. This was purely a cost vs benefit decision. Uptime will still monitored in the interim by other software in five-minute intervals until we produce our own status page.

If you have any questions about this blog post or your services, please feel free to contact us anytime.