Hi,
After a string of acquisitions news, last week saw 3 major companies laying off/hinting to lay off employees – Elementor, Envato, and Twitter. As of now, the general consensus is that these layoffs don’t reflect the WP ecosystem as a whole. Let us hope that it stays so.
But it was an amazing week for the WP-Content.co team. We started contributing to WordPress and have created several tickets in WordPress Core Trac. Trust me, contributing to a worthy cause is an amazing feeling.
Stay safe,
See you next week.
Bye!
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📰 Latest from WordPress
- Redesigned Gutenberg landing page launched: If you have any feedback, find any issues, or want to get involved, head over to the theme repository.
- WordPress for Android 20.1 available for testing: You can ask to join the Beta Program at Android App Testing on Google Play. Once you have been accepted, click the “Become a Tester” button at the same link.
- Let’s update the Core handbook! Sprints start June 20, 2022: Please consider this post your personal invitation to get involved.
- WordPress.org strongly urges theme authors to switch to locally hosted webfonts: The Themes Team is also considering banning remotely hosted fonts moving forward and will discuss at the next meeting.
- What’s the deal with Invalid Reviews?: Must-read if you are a plugin or theme developer.
- Proposal: Disallow assignments in conditions and remove the Yoda condition requirement for PHP: This proposal from the Core team is the continuation of the long discussion on the WordPress Coding Standards (WPCS) repo.
- Promoting WordCamps with the official WordPress social accounts: From WordPress.org Marketing Team, detailing the milestones that would be shared for each of the flagship events (currently, WordCamp Asia, WordCamp Europe, and WordCamp US).
- Thinking through the WordPress Admin experience: Some very early concepts around the possible changes to the admin interface in Phase:3 of the WordPress roadmap.
- Changes in the usage of Shopify: 1.12% of the websites using Shopify were using WordPress until recently while 0.46% of the websites that were using Shopify until recently are now using WordPress.
- WooCommerce 6.6 released: The release added a new TikTok Marketing Extension.
- Google, TikTok, & others agree to new EU Anti-Disinformation Code: Tech giants will have to share more information with the European Commission, as per an update to the Code Of Practice On Disinformation.
- Google LIMoE – A step towards goal of a single AI: Google announced a breakthrough – a new technology called LIMoE – that it calls a step toward achieving the goal of a single AI model that handles multiple tasks.
- Microsoft Bing is building a new retail marketplace: Microsoft Bing has quietly launched a new retail marketplace to compete against Google. It aims to drive a modest $25 million in merchandise sales by the fiscal year 2023.
- Microsoft to implement advertiser identity verification: The latest effort aims to protect searchers, publishers, and advertisers from rising threats and attack vectors in a timely manner.
- Instagram’s main feed is going full screen: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Instagram will soon begin testing a full screen redesign of its main feed. This makes Instagram look more like a TikTok clone.
- Now you can add corrections to YouTube videos after publishing: A new feature for YouTube creators will make it possible to add corrections to videos after they go live.
- Facebook to restructure main feed around video content: A leaked internal memo reveals Facebook’s near-term plans to restructure its main feed around video content, such as Reels and stories.
- TikTok to show who viewed your posts: TikTok is in the process of adding viewer history to posts, according to a test that was spotted in the wild. A study on TikTok’s impact on consumers’ purchase journeys was published. Also an interesting question is if TikTok could be a Search Engine.
- DuckDuckGo drops below 100 million searches per day: After having over 100 million searches per day since January 2021, the privacy-focused search engine has been under that figure for the past few months.
- Pinterest introduces Idea ads and paid partnership tools: The new features are aimed at helping brands and creators reach consumers through creative images and videos.
🚨 Web security & Vulnerabilities
- Critical vulnerability patched in Ninja Forms WordPress plugin: There is evidence to suggest that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild, so please update to one of the patched versions as soon as possible. Ninja Forms users received a forced security update from WordPress.org for a critical PHP Object Injection vulnerability.
- Firefox Total Cookie Protection blocks creepy ad trackers: Mozilla announced that it is rolling out Total Cookie Protection to the Firefox browser, its most powerful cookie-blocking technology ever. The new technology blocks third-party cookie trackers, stopping advertisers from tracking users from site to site.
- Top five attacking IPs this month: Wordfence reveals that attacks originate from all over the world, with the top five attackers coming from Australia, Germany, the United States, Ukraine, and Finland.
- Microsoft finally fixes Windows zero-day flaw Follina: “Microsoft strongly recommends that customers install the updates to be fully protected from the vulnerability,” Microsoft said.
- New botnet and cryptominer Panchan attacking Linux servers: Panchan is going after telecom and education providers using novel and unique methods to thwart defenses and escalate privileges.
- High-severity RCE vulnerability reported in popular Fastjson Library: Tracked as CVE-2022-25845, the vulnerability could be potentially exploited to achieve remote code execution.
- Hertzbleed is a new CPU hack affecting just about everybody: The new computer chip vulnerability is able to leak information from remote servers previously thought to be secure.
🔌 New Plugins & Themes
- Wei block theme: A minimalistic WordPress block theme for writers, with gobs of creativity from Rich Tabor
- Create Block Theme plugin: This tool can create standalone block themes and child themes.
- LiveComm Tutorshop plugin: To bring the physical shopping experience to the online world.
- Admin Posts Grid plugin: Lets you view the posts table as a grid of cards.
- WPC Shoppable Images for WooCommerce plugin: Users can place different hotspots on images to show text or link products visually to take the shopping experience to a higher level.
💵 Investments & Acquisitions
- Spotify partners with Integral Ad Science (IAS): This is Spotify’s latest attempt at keeping the platform a safe environment for creators, listeners and advertisers. The technology uses episode-level transcription technology to help advertisers exclude topics that don’t align with their brand.
👥 Community News
- LayerWP launched ‘The unofficial WordPress directory’: Ben wanted to create a space for WordPress product owners to showcase their offerings free from the ‘usual trappings’ such as install count. And he did that.
- WPPayForm plugin becomes Paymattic: The Stripe Payment Form Plugin for WordPress – WPPayForm – from WPManageNinja became Paymattic for they improved the plugin so radically, that it deserved a completely new look and a fresh branding.
- What’s next for Toolset: Toolset is to pause the development of new features waiting to see what exactly WordPress will do with FSE and how it will work for things that people use Toolset. They will keep working on bug fixes, compatibility, and stability improvements.
- Elementor begins laying off 15% of workforce: The Israeli website building tools company is shedding 60 employees (mostly in the company’s marketing department) ahead of the expected slowdown in world markets.
- Envato lays off 100 staff: The company that made $228.5 million in revenue in the past financial year blamed inflation, the Ukraine invasion and increasing competition as the reason for the lay-offs.
- Elon Musk hints that layoffs are in Twitter’s future: He says the company ‘needs to get healthy’ financially.
- Yoast SEO 19.1 & Premium 18.7 released: Yoast SEO 19.1 comes with several fixes and enhancements. Premium 18.7 includes additional crawl settings
- An Internet Explorer gravestone in South Korea: To commemorate its demise, Jung Ki-young, a South Korean software engineer spent a month and 430,000 won ($330) designing and ordering a headstone with Explorer’s ‘e’ logo and the English epitaph: ‘He was a good tool to download other browsers’.
- Matt Mullenweg on the future of Technology and where WordPress fits in: From WP Tavern podcast
- Interview with Dave Martin, CEO of WordPress.com: From The WP Minute
- The future of WordPress: Interview with Josepha Haden Chomphosy: From Search Engine Journal
- I don’t care about the HOW until I can understand the WHY anyone would ever need the no-code FSE aspects of WP 6.0: Twitter thread from Derek Ashauer
- Why quoting WordPress marketshare figures ALONE can often be misleading: From WinningWP
- Where will the WordPress middle class go?: From The WP Minute
- Rebuttal: The case for caching: From MasterWP, on striking a balance between crashing your site and breaking your plugins.
- Richard Midson on WordPress and the future of Podcasting: From Post Status
- 56 WordPress experts to follow online: From Freemius
- Headless WordPress and more with Ivan Popov: From Search Engine Journal
- WordPress acquisitions on the rise: Developers discuss their exits: From Freemius
- Best WordPress plugins you’ve never heard of: From The Admin Bar
- MongoDB vs PostgreSQL: 15 critical differences: From Kinsta
- JavaScript for backend developers: Podcast from Delicious Brains
- Vacations make a business stronger: From MasterWP
- Is SEO worth it?: From Ahrefs Blog
🛠 Guide Zone – Howto’s and More
- Complying with GDPR when using Google Fonts: From WordPress.org
- Creating a front page for a Block Theme: From Learn WordPress team
- Builder basics – Let’s build a custom theme (No coding required): From WordPress.tv
- How to clean a hacked WordPress site: From ithemes
- How to fix the WordPress white screen of death: From Elegant Themes
- What is a WordPress Staging Site and how do you set one up?: From WooCommerce.com
- How to add tooltips in WordPress?: From QodeMagazine
- How to sell digital products on WordPress with WooCommerce: From Jetpack
- WordPress Login URL: How to find, change, and hide it: From Jetpack
- A complete Google Search Console Guide for SEO pros: From Search Engine Journal
- Creating your first Remix App: From WedbDevStudios
- Using web streams on Node.js: From 2ality
📆 Save The Dates
- The Page Builder Summit on June 20-24: Get your free ticket.
- WordCamp MontcWordCamp Montclair – June 25, 2022 — Montclair, NJlair 2022 on June 22: Check out the nearby places to stay.
- WordCamp US 2022 on September 9-11: The Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship also returns after 2 years. It will only have around 650 people – much lower than the 2,000 persons in the previous editions.
- WordCamp Nederland 2022 on September 15 & 16: Save the dates.
- Inclusive Design 24 on September 22: Call for speakers is open for the 24-hour long livestream conference.
- WordPress Accessibility Day on November 2-3: A free, 24-hour virtual conference focused on building accessible websites in WordPress.
- WordCamp Europe 2023 on June 8-10, 2023: Call for organizers is out.
🎁 WordPress Deals Of The Week
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- 3 Months free offer on hosting plans of WP Engine (Coupon Code- WPE3FREE)
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OTHER DEALS
- 50% off themes, codes at Envato
- 25% off for plugin bundles at Iconic
- 50% off Web Hosting Packages at StableHost (Coupon Code – 50OFFYEAR1)
- 83% off for plugins at WPPool
- 50% off at WPMet
- 20% off at OceanWP
- Up to 74% off hosting plans at HostPapa
- 50% off for Advanced Giftcards for WooCommerce plugin
- 33% off on Managed Hosting plans at Nexcess
- 81% off at AtlasVPN
- 30% off for Fluent Forms plugin
- 50% off at Formidable Forms
- 30% off for FluentCRM plugin
- 30% off for WP Social Ninja plugin
- 95% off for PitchGround products
- 90% off WordPress Hosting plans at InMotion Hosting
- 73% off hosting plans at SiteGround
- 75% off at Hostgator India
- 75% off VPS Monthly Plans at Liquid Web
- 50% off on Managed Dedicated Server Hosting at Liquid Web
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