Issue #178 | July 9, 2024 | Reading time: 13 mins
Hello!
We are just a week away from the release of WordPress 6.6, the second major release of this year and we can also expect the RC3 later today. The call for volunteers for WordPress 6.7 is now open.
Don’t forget to subscribe and listen to the podcast version of this newsletter on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts, where you can hear more details and discussions about these topics and more.
See you next week!
Team WP-CONTENT.CO
This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by Omnisend and WP Job Openings
📰 WORDPRESS & AROUND
All the updates around WordPress and its closely related technologies
It would include up to Gutenberg 19.3 for a total of 8 Gutenberg releases. Please leave your feedback about the schedule and release squad size in the comments by July 19th. If you are interested in participating in the release as a lead, please comment so below the post, clearly specifying the role. The proposed release date for the next version is November 12, 2024.
- WordPress 6.6 RC2 released: The RC2 is now available for download and testing. This release includes more than 19 bug fixes for the Editor and more than 20 tickets for WordPress Core. We can expect RC3 later today.
- What’s new in Gutenberg 18.7: The latest version brings drag-and-drop grid items in manual mode, a content panel for template parts, and various other enhancements.
- What would you like to see in the next default WordPress theme?: The Core Team is now inviting ideas and feedback for Twenty Twenty-Five, the upcoming default theme that will debut with WordPress 6.7.
- Notes from the discussion on (global) sponsorships during WCEU 2024: Taco Verdonschot has shared a concise summary of the discussion from Contributor Day at WordCamp Europe 2024 concerning the global sponsorship program. The discussions were centered around ROI for sponsors, how can WordCamps help with it, regional vs global sponsorships, and so on.
- Project Thread: Retiring the Faculty Program: The Training team has decided to go forward with retiring the Faculty Program, in order to streamline processes, help the team run more efficiently, and free up people’s time to focus on higher-impact areas.
- Recap: The second Learn WordPress course cohort: An overview of the recently completed Learn’s second course cohort facilitated by the Training Team saw great improvement when compared to the first cohort in terms of learner engagement and ease of administration.
- Nearly 60% of Google searches end without a click in 2024: A majority of Google searches – 58.5% in the U.S. and 59.7% in the EU – result in zero clicks. A zero-click search happens when users end their session or enter a new query without clicking on any results.
- Google’s AI Overviews coincide with drop in mobile searches: A new study by search industry expert Rand Fishkin has revealed that Google’s rollout of AI overviews in May led to a noticeable decrease in search volume, particularly on mobile devices.
🚨WEB SECURITY & VULNERABILITIES
A collection of web security and vulnerability news and updates for the past week
There were 121 vulnerabilities disclosed in 99 plugins, 20 themes, and WordPress Core.
- Arbitrary file upload vulnerability patched in Modern Events Calendar WordPress plugin: The vulnerability that makes it possible for authenticated users such as subscribers to upload arbitrary files to a vulnerable site and achieve remote code execution was recently patched. All users are to update to the latest version immediately.
- WordPress Nested Pages plugin high severity vulnerability: A cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability was recently patched and all users are to update to the latest version.
- WordPress Security Research Series: WordPress request architecture and hooks: Part 1 of the WordPress Security Research Beginner Series focuses on request architecture and hooks in WordPress. Various aspects such as request lifecycle, request handling, and more are covered.
- Polyfill vulnerability effect on the WordPress ecosystem: Patchstack covers a supply chain attack issue initially published by Sansec on the Polyfill library that could potentially inject a malicious JS code into websites via compromised domains.
- WordPress vulnerability report — July 3, 2024: Weekly vulnerability report from SolidWP.
🔌 NEW PLUGINS & THEMES
Be one of the first ones to explore some fresh plugins and themes
- Home Decoration Shop theme: A theme suitable for home decor stores and shops selling home accessories and furnishings.
- Studies theme: A theme suitable for educational institutions, e-learning platforms, and academic professionals.
- Post Reaction plugin: The plugin allows you to add Facebook like reaction interface in WordPress posts and count them.
- Sliding WooCommerce Side Cart plugin: The plugin adds a side cart to your WooCommerce store, enabling a faster checkout experience for your customers.
- Showcase Shipping Options plugin: The plugin enables users to easily display shipping method icons anywhere on the website via a shortcode.
💵 INVESTMENTS, ACQUISITIONS & PARTNERSHIPS
- WPExperts has acquired Honeypot for Contact Form 7: The Honeypot for Contact Form 7 plugin which adds anti-spam features to Contact Form 7 without the need for captchas has been acquired by WPExperts from Nocean.
👥 COMMUNITY NEWS
Updates and News from the WordPress Community
Joost de Valk has compiled a CMS market share report based on data from the HTTP Archive. The most popular CMS is WordPress with a 35.47% market share followed by Shopify (3.81%), Wix (2.51%), Squarespace (1.8%), Joomla (1.35%), Drupal (1.34%), Presta Shop (0.68%), and Webflow (0.62%).
- Awesome Motive took an investment stake in Automattic: WPBeginner recently celebrated its 15th anniversary and also revealed that its parent company Awesome Motive has taken an investment stake in Automattic. As of now, no further details have been shared about this development.
- Introducing Divi Quick Sites & AI Website Creation: The all-new Divi Quick Sites will automatically generate a Divi website in 2 minutes for the users with the help of AI. The users can also opt to pick any of the pre-made starter sites from the library.
- Jetpack Social: Unlimited sharing, Threads support and more: The new version of Jetpack Social has removed the sharing limits, added an automatic sharing feature to Threads, and also includes an improved UI.
- Cloudways presents Web Growth Summit 2024: The Web Growth Summit by Cloudways will take place on July 17th and 18th, 2024. The two-day event will see talks delivered by industry experts on AI-driven search changes, maximizing traffic through user experience, and ensuring website reliability and performance.
- WooCommerce 9.0.2 – Dot release to fix shipping calculation issues: WooCommerce 9.0.2 has been released and fixed an issue with decimal and thousand separators in flat rate shipping costs.
- A WordPress themes business is up for grabs: Sonal S Sinha on X announced that he is selling a WordPress themes business with an annual revenue of around 120k USD. Interested people can DM him for further details.
- 11 Years of contributing to WordPress: Jonathan Desrosiers recounts his 11 years of contributing to the WordPress project. In his 5.5 years as a Core Committer, he has given props, around 3,700 times to 640 contributors. He has given the most number of props to Sergey Biryukov and once to Matt Mullenweg also.
- Zunaid Amin receives the Yoast Care fund for his contribution to the WordPress community: Zunaid Amin a member of the WordPress Community Team is the latest recipient of the Yoast Care fund.
🔖 INTERESTING READS & PODCASTS
More posts and podcasts from the WordPress Community you don’t want to miss
- Let’s talk about a bad user experience (WooCommerce feature compatibility): From Jack Arturo
- Overlays misunderstand accessibility: From Joe Dolson
- Is WordPress still relevant in 2024?: From Barn2 Plugins
- Rocket.net celebrates four years of growth and innovation!: From Rocket.net
- Claude Sonnet 3.5: Anthropic’s most advanced AI model yet: From DocsBot AI
- Epic Showdown: Who will win WordCamp Europe’s first ever WordPress Speed Build?: From Jamie Marsland
- First WordCamp Europe 2024: Impressions and tips for newbies like me: From Crocoblock
- WCEU 2024 was a blast – here’s what went down: From Melapress
- What can we learn about AI from the release of fullworks Anti Spam v2.0: From WP BizDev
- Aaron Jorbin on navigating WordPress major and minor releases: From WP Tavern Jukebox
- Learning pathways: From WordPress Briefing
- Elena Brescacin designing for inclusion: From Women in WP
- WordPress user enumeration: Risks & mitigation steps: From Sucuri
- 9 best WordPress AI plugins for content, chatbots, and more: From Kinsta
- Preparing for React 19: a guide for WordPress 6.6 users: From Kinsta
- Curbing AI creativity: How to provide effective guardrails: From Yoast
- Password reuse: A major vulnerability you need to avoid: From Jetpack
- Robots.txt turns 30: Google highlights hidden strengths: From Search Engine Journal
🛠 GUIDE ZONE – HOWTO’S and MORE
Handpicked fresh guides from WordPress circle
- 15 ways to curate the WordPress editing experience: From WordPress Developer Blog
- Creating custom post types and taxonomies: From WordPress.tv
- WordPress taxonomies: From WordPress.tv
- How to back up your WordPress database in 4 easy ways: From Melapress
- How to do local keyword research: A comprehensive guide: From RankMath
📆 SAVE THE DATES
Do not miss a WordPress event ever again
- WordCamp Canada on July 11-13, 2024: The call for volunteers, and sponsors is now open. The schedule is now available.
- .edu: WordPress in higher education by Human Made and WP Campus on July 18, 2024: This a virtual event and the registrations are now open.
- Stellar Spark on July 19, 2024: A free online event with a focus on growth, creativity, collaboration, and more. The full schedule is now available.
- WordCamp Bengaluru on July 21, 2024: The call for speakers and sponsors is now open. The tickets are also now available.
- do_action Ahmedabad on July 27, 2024: The call for sponsors and charity organization applications is now open.
- WordCamp US on 17-20 September 2024: The tickets are now available.
- WordCamp Netherlands on 27-28 September 2024: The call for speakers is now open.
- WordPress Accessibility Day on Oct 9-10, 2024: The call for speakers is now open.
- WordCamp Asia on February 20-22, 2025: The venue will be the Philippine International Convention Center, Manila, Philippines. The call for speakers is now open.
- WordCamp Europe on 5-7 June 2025: The call for organizers is now open.
🎁 WORDPRESS DEALS OF THE WEEK
Again, these are the best deals of the week, handpicked by yours!
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- 40% off for 4 months on all hosting plans + 40 free migrations at Cloudways (Coupon Code – BFCM4040)
- 53% off for NordLocker
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- Up to 75% off on plugins, themes and hosting at WP Hive
- 50% off on the Thrive Suite yearly plan.
- 50% off Web Hosting Packages at StableHost (Coupon Code – 50OFFYEAR1)
- 80% off for plugins at WPPool
- Up to 77% off hosting plans at HostPapa
- 50% off for Advanced Giftcards for WooCommerce plugin
- Upto 55% off hosting plans at Nexcess
- 20% off for Fluent Forms plugin
- 50% off at Formidable Forms
- 20% off for FluentCRM plugin
- 50% off for WP Social Ninja plugin
- Upto 95% off for PitchGround products
- Upto 69% off WordPress Hosting plans at InMotion Hosting
- 83% off hosting plansat SiteGround
- 60% off at Hostgator India (Coupon Code- SUNSHINE)
- Up to 74% off at Liquid Web
- 52% off on Managed Dedicated Server Hosting at Liquid Web
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Team WP-CONTENT.CO
Issue #178 | July 9, 2024 | Reading time: 13 mins
This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by Omnisend and WP Job Openings
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