Issue #181 | July 30, 2024 | Reading time: 13 mins
Hello!
WordPress 6.6.1 a maintenance release is now available which resolves several bugs in the Core and Block Editor. Woo Express which was launched last year is no longer available. Also, going forward Webflow will be laying off 8% of its workforce.
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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
- WordPress 6.6 Performance Improvements: The performance analysis shows several regressions such as block themes (Twenty Twenty-Four was tested), which experienced modest regressions in performance. The median Largest Contentful Pain (LCP) time shows a slight 7ms or 5% decline in tests, and the median Time To First Byte (TTFB) shows a 10ms (14%) decline. An issue was opened to investigate where the regressions may have come from.
- Using Playground to demo WordPress to first time meetup participants: The proposal aims to use Playground to demo WordPress to first-time meetup attendees. This will allow them to experience WordPress without going through the hassle of any setup hurdles.
- First briefing retrospective and next steps: This post summarizes the feedback received from media partners regarding the first Media Corps briefing and future sessions, along with suggested next steps. The participants’ suggestions for upcoming sessions include having a chief architect or lead designers available for questions to get firsthand knowledge of vision and ideas, limiting duration to 30 minutes, and not being too technical. The next briefing is tentatively scheduled for the first week of August.
- The Community Team focusing on reactivating WordPress Meetup Groups: They messaged organizers of groups inactive in April–June 2024, encouraging them to host events. Groups not showing interest in reactivating will be removed from the WordPress Chapter Meetup Program in August. They also shared this list of groups noted for removal.
- The Learning Pathway for Intermediate WordPress Users is now live on Learn.WordPress.org: This comprehensive learning pathway will help Meetup organizers support community members who are familiar with WordPress and looking to deepen their skills. Two other learning pathways were also recently published – Beginner WordPress User & Beginner WordPress Developer.
- WordPress.com announces a new series called Fediverse Files: WordPress.com is collaborating with Doctor Popular for a new series called Fediverse Files, to explain what the Fediverse is all about.
- Google abandons third-party cookie phaseout: Google has announced it will no longer phase out third-party cookies in Chrome. Instead, it’s trying a new approach that emphasizes user choice and control over their web browsing privacy.
- OpenAI launches SearchGPT: AI-powered search prototype: OpenAI has announced the launch of SearchGPT, a prototype AI-powered search engine. This move marks the company’s entry into the competitive search market, potentially challenging established players.
- Reddit limits search engine access, Google remains exception: Reddit blocks major search engines from recent content, except Google, sparking debate on data access and AI training practices.
🚨WEB SECURITY & VULNERABILITIES
A collection of web security and vulnerability news and updates for the past week
There were 71 vulnerabilities disclosed in 60 plugins and 2 themes.
- WordPress vulnerability report — July 24, 2024: Weekly report from SolidWP.
- The aftereffects of WordPress.org supply chain attack: Wordfence discusses several new variants of malware that emerged from a recent supply chain attack on WordPress.org plugins as well as a new technique called credential exfiltration. Newer strains of malware put an increased focus on credential exfiltration outside of WordPress itself and look for credentials related to email accounts and accounts related to payment processing.
🔌 NEW PLUGINS & THEMES
Be one of the first ones to explore some fresh plugins and themes
- Brandy theme: An e-commerce theme.
- Compilation theme: A minimalist block theme.
- Simple Empty Cart plugin: The plugin allows you to remove all items from the cart page with a single click.
- Banner Image for WooCommerce plugin: The plugin helps admins create banners for their store’s pages, including shop, category, single product, and individual product pages.
💵 INVESTMENTS, ACQUISITIONS & PARTNERSHIPS
- Stripe acquires Lemon Squeezy: Lemon Squeezy an all-in-one platform for running SaaS business has been acquired by Stripe.
👥 COMMUNITY NEWS
Updates and News from the WordPress Community
Rodolfo Melogli on X drew everyone’s attention to the discontinuation of Woo Express. The Woo Express homepage has been updated and states, “ Woo Express is no longer available, but check out these other options for hosting your WooCommerce store.
- Carolina Nymark highlights the two sides of contributing to WordPress: Carolina Nymark on X posted about how she is happy with the WordPress project and for others but personally feels disappointed. This is because, even after a decade of contributing, she doesn’t have theme commit access which makes her job difficult.
- WooCommerce in 2024 and beyond: Roadmap update: The plans include a revamped developer blog, improvements to documentation, and a developer-focused newsletter. There will also be enhancements to the WooCommerce REST API, and the future of WooCommerce will be based on blocks as they slowly shift from a raw code model.
- WordCamp Asia 2025 tickets will be available from August 1, 2024: The first batch of tickets will be released on August 1st at 9 PM PHT. Don’t miss out.
- Introducing Convesio Convert: An all-new omni-channel marketing automation & personalization tool from Convesio.
- Announcing Jotform Government: Powerful forms for public service: Jotform Government provides a secure online form solution to help you collect, share, and manage data while maintaining government-required security standards.
- The WP Awards 2024 Nominations are now open: The nominations are open till Sep 16 and the voting period is from October 2 to November 22, 2024.
- Ollie Theme is off to a great start: Mike McAlister on X shared that Ollie Theme has generated $10k in sales in the first month, and that too when they haven’t even started their marketing efforts.
- 10 years’ worth of user survey data on WordPress hosting: Ionut Neagu has shared a Google Doc which contains 10 years’ worth of data on WordPress hosting, gathered from real users. This is essentially a single doc that documents the data they have collected from 2014-2024 via their hosting surveys on WPShout.
- Estela Rueda receives the Yoast Care fund for her contribution to the WordPress community: Estela Rueda, a member of the WordPress Community Team is the latest recipient of the Yoast Care fund.
- WP Mayor gets a revamp: Mark Zahra on X notified users about the new visual redesign WP Mayor has received.
- Webflow to lay off 8% of its workforce: Linda Tong, CEO at Webflow has announced that 8% of its workforce will be laid off as a part of restructuring for the next phase of growth.
🔖 INTERESTING READS & PODCASTS
More posts and podcasts from the WordPress Community you don’t want to miss
- On contribution pathways and experiences: From Anne McCarthy
- An open letter to new WordPress committers: From Aaron Jorbin
- Home run: A full circle WordPress moment: From James Giroux
- Being a new parent in WordPress: From Human Made
- WordCamp Bengaluru 2024 Pre-event: A fun-filled day of connection and creativity: From Dulcea Suresha
- My favorite accessibility tools as a web designer: From WPBakery
- Eneko Garrido on how WordPress transformed his life: From WP Tavern Jukebox
- WordPress page builder accessibility comparison: From Equalize Digital
- Cheese, cake, and cybersecurity: Your quick-start guide to protecting your WordPress website: From Patchstack
- How to give your developer access to WordPress (safely!): From Melapress
- The Gutenberg user experience: From Brian Coords
- Mastering WordPress full site editing: a step-by-step tutorial: From Kinsta
- How to stay safe when updating WordPress: From Speckyboy
- Elevating author and publisher entities in SEO: From Yoast
- Google’s reversal on third-party cookies: what it means for you: From Yoast
- Discussing WordPress frustrations: From The WP Minute
- WordPress inflation is the new reality: From The WP Minute
- 23 Easy steps to optimize WordPress speed and performance: From Jetpack
🛠 GUIDE ZONE – HOWTO’S and MORE
Handpicked fresh guides from WordPress circle
- Converting a classic theme to a block theme: From WordPress.tv
- Theme.json in classic themes: From WordPress.tv
- Disabling XML-RPC in WordPress: From Deluxe Blog Tips
📆 SAVE THE DATES
Do not miss a WordPress event ever again
- WordSesh 2024 on July 30: The registrations are 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.
- WordCamp Nagpur on September 28, 2024: The call for sponsors is now open.
- WordPress Accessibility Day on Oct 9-10, 2024: The call for speakers and volunteers is now open.
- Rome Core Days on November 8-9, 2024: This will be a two-day event dedicated to WordPress Core developers with round tables, open discussions, and contribution rooms.
- WordCamp Romania on November 14-15, 2024: The event is in the early planning stages.
- 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!
EXCLUSIVE DEALS
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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 #180 | July 30, 2024 | Reading time: 13 mins
This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by Omnisend and WP Job Openings
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