Welcome to Discover

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Hello! We’re excited to introduce Discover: a brand-new space for the best writing, photography, and art published across WordPress, including WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress sites.

Users around the world — from the biggest publications to undiscovered bloggers — publish their stories, share their projects, and build their online homes with WordPress, which powers 25 percent of the web. The editorial staff at Automattic — the team behind The Daily Post, Blogging University, and Longreads — created Discover for all of you: to find new writers and blogs to read, to dig into topics that interest you, and to explore big ideas.

Read more about Discover and the team behind it.

Over the past several years, we featured editors’ picks each day on Freshly Pressed in the WordPress.com Reader. Your work inspires us, provokes us, and resonates with us — and with readers across the internet.

Discover is a place for stories and voices — yours.

Here, you’ll find a daily selection of our favorite posts — but also much more. Each week, we’ll publish interviews with authors, bloggers, and photographers. Features on short story writers, poets, and illustrators. Profiles of online magazines and small publications we love. You can also explore and read our top picks — new and old — across various topics in our archive.

Let’s celebrate this platform that we call our home on the web.

So please, dive in. We have more features coming soon, and we can’t wait to share them with you.

Love,
The Editorial Team at Automattic

48 Comments

  1. What a fantastic idea! I’m very much looking forward to your interviews, in particular — but everything about “Discover” sounds wonderful. A HUGE thank you to everyone on the editorial team for striving to not only make this a great platform for blogging, but a true community as well.

    Liked by 6 people

      2. I liked freshly pressed. I want to see what’s going on, unfiltered. I’m sad that now I only get to see what someone else thinks is “the best” or whatever. Seems less democratic and creative, more of the same kind of media filtering that one finds too much everywhere else. I’d love a way to just browse what everyone is posting without the intermediary.

        Liked by 5 people

      3. I liked freshly pressed. I want to see what’s going on, unfiltered. I’m sad that now I only get to see what someone else thinks is “the best” or whatever.

        As noted above, wanted to clarify that Freshly Pressed wasn’t unfiltered — those picks were read and selected for the showcase by people (us). The main difference between Freshly Pressed and Discover is that Discover is much more expanded space to feature our bloggers in more ways. I think that’s a great thing!

        Liked by 2 people

  5. I have just begin to dip my toes into the blogging community. My blog is brand new, but I honestly don’t even have the slightest idea how to find blogs to follow. Talk about being a bit blogging naive 🙂 I am so glad I found this particular blog; I’ll keep my eye on it for sure!

    Liked by 4 people

    1. Hi There, It isnt too difficult to find wordpress blogs that will be of interest to you. In that respect the reader is your friend. When you lok into WordPress look in the top left of the app or browser and you will see the reader. Click into that and you can search for topics that interest you. you will get a list of blogs that featured your search as a key work. Click into the blog and follow. your done. Blog entries from that blog will now appear in your reader. one top tip from me is to interact with other bloggers. When you read a post you like leave a comment. We all enjoy feedback on our blogs and none of us leave anywhere near enough comments on other peoples blogs 🙂 I hope that helps

      Liked by 5 people

  6. Hi @Cheri so here’s the thing. I download this bright shiny new App and it looks great. So far so good. I have a browse around the new Discover section and I start to get really excited. I love the look, it’s clean and pretty and I think I am going to like this a lot. I start to read comments and want to find out more about the writer and maybe follow them. I click on their name and what happens? The App launches my browser!!
    So my question is why have an app if navigation is going to take me to a browser window anyway? If I am in a browser window and want to read something I can Cmd click to open a new tab. Why do I need to use two apps to do a job that I can do in one Browser app?

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Glad to hear you’re liking Discover and (at least some parts of) the Desktop app! We’re really excited about them too 🙂

      On your question about the app, that’s a very good point. We know it’s not going to be useful for everyone; it largely depends on how you work. I manage and post on many different WordPress sites so it’s nice to have a dedicated interface for interacting with and managing them. Plus, I find it’s useful for keeping an eye on my notifications throughout the day without having to switch to the browser.

      But, there are definitely some frustrating pieces like getting bumped to the browser for some actions and it’s one of the many areas we’re working on improving. Keep an eye out for future updates and thank you for the feedback!

      Liked by 7 people

      1. Thanks for the reply. On the whole I am loving the app. It is excellent when you are creating a post and I guess that is the most important aspect.
        Being bounced over to the browser to browse other sites is hardly the end of the world 🙂

        Liked by 3 people

  7. Sounds fantastic. I’m only a fairly new blogger from Australia but already I’m feeling part of a much bigger community which is really exciting. Look forward to checking out all that Discover has to offer. Thanks very much.

    Liked by 3 people

  10. Seriously, I’m really missing Freshly Pressed. I don’t understand the reason for the change. One of the best things about blogging is the democracy of it that is rare in media. But putting a layer of editors between us and other bloggers, people who will choose *for* us what we see, erodes that democracy. Please bring back Freshly Pressed. This might be a good supplement to it, but please don’t just take it away. Pretty please with sugar on it….

    Liked by 4 people

  14. I like the new format. I like the variety of articles posted. You use the word “best.” Unfortunately many fantastic bloggers I follow, bloggers I think are the best, will never show up here because their blogs are small, or odd, or just unique. Don’t forget those bloggers. Maybe a suggestion box would be nice. I can think of three bloggers already that I’d love to see you share. Thanks.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. because their blogs are small, or odd, or just unique.

      I think I can speak on behalf of the rest of the editors on the team and say that we absolutely love finding pieces of excellent writing and work on unknown blogs and new writers. We feature these types of blogs and bloggers — there are so many posts published across WordPress each day, and just a handful of us. It takes time to find these sites.

      Maybe a suggestion box would be nice.

      There’s a submission form on the About page: https://discover.wordpress.com/about

      Thanks for reading and glad you like the new format, Juliette.

      Liked by 3 people

  16. Discover, as an expansion of the Freshly Pressed idea, is fine, but having to scroll down it is a lot slower than the previous grid display. And what happened to the tag cloud, and the option to search using a keyword WE choose? It looks like we now have to fill in a tag, follow it to see the list, then UNfollow it.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Hi there — we do look for and feature picks in specific categories and niches — often the topic is made more accessible and engaging to a general reader. I’m actually not a gamer nor read much on gaming; however, of my favorite blogs to follow (Problem Machine) writes about games and narrative design in ways that I can understand and appreciate from different angles (creativity, design, storytelling).

      Liked by 2 people

  20. I liked dipping into Freshly Pressed from time to time. It will be interesting to see how this Discover idea works. One thing I have noticed is that you are recommending more than one post by the same blogger. Is that intentional? Do you go in and look at someone’s blog and then recommend more than one of the posts depending on what you like?

    Freshly Pressed was refreshingly random. If I get too much of a sense of a person’s tastes emerging on this Discover thing there are plenty of other places I can go for edited suggestions.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Hi Jason — if you’ve been browsing our topic archives, yes, you might see multiple posts by the same bloggers, as we’ve been culling posts from Freshly Pressed over the past year. Now that we have a proper searchable archive, you’ll see much more. We featured some of the same writers on FP as well, but because of the limited design of that previous showcase, you could never search for them.

      To clarify, FP wasn’t random — there were always actual humans (us) selecting those posts — the big difference here is we now have a whole site to experiment with more ways to feature people, which is a great thing. Thanks for poking around — we appreciate your feedback!

      Liked by 2 people

  21. This step is truly a great one. Because if you want to reward an author or writer then showcase his/her write-ups at a spaces where it can be easily discover-able.

    WP Team! Thanks for thinking about us…

    Liked by 2 people

  22. The scroll is what is irritating and feels less democratic as you took away the over-view menu of FP. You aren’t understanding the feedback. You used to have recommendations on the side and the FP section as well as categories and tag lists as well as search engine boxes and this felt like more choices and so easier access to your picks. You keep saying to your commenters here that it’s really the same and it’s not random, but yes Discover has made the search very narrowed down and limited. The new “easier” posting templates also have fewer options… and I always go way back to the old-school WP options as they show me what I’m doing…Infuriating this discover take-over.

    Good luck with your new system, but it’s definitely less democratic feeling. You can reassure me otherwise, but then, I’m the one using it…

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Did you have Freshly Pressed bookmarked? (I sense this may be the issue because there is a redirect in place for some older URLS.) If you go to the Reader while logged in, there is a Discover menu item, there is a Recommendations menu item, and if you follow tags, they’ll appear in a list along the left-hand side of the Reader. Tags can still be viewed. For example, here’s how you can see posts tagged “family”: https://wordpress.com/tag/family (You’ll see Recommendations, etc., along the left-hand side of this page.)

      Liked by 2 people

      2. Hi again Krista… I knew all of that actually. I do see the left hand side and where I can enter a tag.

        You use to list categories and tags to click on. I didn’t have to “know” what I was searching for first. I could “browse” better before.

        It’s a matter of access. Of seeing whole lists that this new Discover has taken away.

        It’s not my lack of comprehension about what you are providing. You and the other moderators just don’t seem to understand the feedback… or it doesn’t really matter and this is what we call “management” in which case I’m use to that. Technology is not getting “better” or “easier” it’s becoming monopolized and Discovery feels part of the quarantine. Not that it’s an evil plot… just that what has made things easier for you as operators of this thing, has become irritating to navigate. Not Hard… just irritating.

        But thanks for your time. And for providing a free blogging space.

        Liked by 2 people

  23. This blog is really great, and for me it’s easier to find other blogs! I was just looking at the submissions page, and I was just wondering: what do you put in the comment box? Is it for the submitter to describe his/her blog or blog post?

    Liked by 2 people

  24. Unfortunately, the “regular blogger” will never get featured here. And not to specifically identify the “small group of people” at WordPress that routinely post their own work on Freshly Pressed, and now in this Discover blog. We still see you in this newer blog format.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Hi there — I hope that the many “regular bloggers” we’d featured on Freshly Pressed in the past, and that are now in the archives here on Discover, will chime in here — it’s not true that we don’t feature regular people, hobbyist bloggers, new writers, or unknown sites. I think I can speak for the rest of the editors and say that one of our favorite parts of our day is stumbling upon a completely amazing, unexpected post from an unknown writer or small blog. Those are the best finds, and discovering that type of work is what keeps us searching.

      In terms of our new Discover features, like interviews and profiles, the people we’re attracted to are indeed those with interesting, extraordinary stories and backgrounds, or people who stand out because they’re using WordPress in a unique, innovative way. We also take your suggestions, so feel free to recommend people if you’d like.

      And not to specifically identify the “small group of people” at WordPress that routinely post their own work on Freshly Pressed, and now in this Discover blog.

      “The small group of people at WordPress” = do you mean us, the editors? Two of us, me included, have had our work featured on Freshly Pressed, and here on Discover, yes. (I was FP’ed numerous times years ago, when I didn’t work at WordPress, which is actually how I discovered there was even a company behind the platform.) We’re all writers and readers, too, just like everyone else, and our colleagues might consider and select our work under the same criteria that we use for other bloggers. I want to be clear on this — we aren’t “routinely posting our own work.”

      Thanks for the critical feedback, though — it’s our chance to improve this experience and one of our goals is to diversify our picks and features (especially with more international voices) and expand our mix of topics. Thanks for keeping us on our toes.

      Liked by 3 people

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