• Meetup.com Removes Accessibility Overlay In Response to WordPress Community’s Concerns

    Meetup.com Removes Accessibility Overlay In Response to WordPress Community’s Concerns

    Meetup.com has removed its accessibility overlay, a recent addition to the company’s website that raised concerns with the WordPress community and the broader community of accessibility professionals. The overly was powered by EqualWeb, a product which claims to provide automated compliance with accessibility standards but doesn’t address inaccessibility at the root of the problem. WordPress Community…

  • Dig Into the Open Web

    Dig Into the Open Web

    As the American Thanksgiving holiday is coming up, I am so grateful for all of our Tavern readers and the people who make WordPress – 800 in the most recent 6.1 release with 35 percent of them being new contributors. This community has made remarkable progress this year, while navigating changes and uncertain times. Committed…

  • New Tool Checks If Google Fonts Are Hosted Locally

    New Tool Checks If Google Fonts Are Hosted Locally

    Earlier this year, WordPress’ Themes Team began urging theme authors to switch to locally hosted fonts after a German court case decision, which fined a website owner for violating the GDPR by using Google-hosted webfonts. Since that ruling, German website owners have continued to receive threats of fines for not having their fonts hosted locally. The…

  • WordPress Launches Developer Blog In Beta

    WordPress Launches Developer Blog In Beta

    WordPress.org will soon be launching a blog for developers. The blog went into beta at the end of last week and resides on a subdomain of the main site. It is sporting a design similar to WordPress’ general News blog. One of the big picture goals that WordPress’ Executive Director Josepha Haden-Chomphosy identified for 2022…

  • State of the Word 2022 Will Be Livestreamed from New York City on December 15

    State of the Word 2022 Will Be Livestreamed from New York City on December 15

    Matt Mullenweg’s annual State of the Word (SOTW) address will be delivered in New York City this year before a live audience, on December 15. The event format is similar to last year where a small group of invited guests will join in person. Traditionally, the State of the Word has been given at WordCamp…

  • Divi 5.0 Aims to Bring Greater Compatibility with Gutenberg

    Divi 5.0 Aims to Bring Greater Compatibility with Gutenberg

    Divi, the popular commercial WordPress theme and page builder created by Elegant Themes, has announced major changes coming in version 5.0 that constitute a complete rewrite of Divi’s core technologies. The update, which is expected to be released in beta next year, will focus on performance, stability, scalability, and extendability, but it will not introduce…

  • Jetpack Search Adds Free Tier and 3-Month Free Trial

    Jetpack Search Adds Free Tier and 3-Month Free Trial

    Jetpack Search, a plugin that enhances WordPress’ search capabilities, has added a free tier and a three-month free trial to what was previously only available as a paid upgrade. The plugin uses WordPress.com’s infrastructure to provide instant, more relevant search results without reloading the page, with real-time indexing, integration with WooCommerce, spelling correction, and more.…

  • Loudness: A New Block Theme from Automattic

    Loudness: A New Block Theme from Automattic

    Automattic has released a new block theme called Loudness that is available on both WordPress.com and WordPress.org. It’s an artistic and opinionated theme based on the company’s Block Canvas starter theme. Although Loudness’ brief description suggests the theme was created for “music and learning,” the design and custom patterns lend themselves to a variety of different…

  • WordCamp Asia 2023 Announces Speakers, Unveils Wapuu Mascot

    WordCamp Asia 2023 Announces Speakers, Unveils Wapuu Mascot

    WordCamp Asia 2023, the first flagship event to take place in Asia, is just a few months away, scheduled for February 17-19, 2023, in Bangkok, Thailand. Organizers have announced the first round of speakers, a diverse selection of WordPress professionals from Asia and across the globe. The event has also unveiled its wapuu mascot. After…

  • Meetup.com Raises Concerns with New Accessibility Overlay

    Meetup.com Raises Concerns with New Accessibility Overlay

    Meetup.com raised some concerns with the WordPress community (and the broader community of accessibility professionals) this week after it added an accessibility overlay to its website. The overlay, powered by EqualWeb, displays a list of settings that can be toggled, ostensibly to address various accessibility needs. Accessibility overlay products are often marketed as a quick…

  • WordPress.com Adds Support for New Pocket Casts Block

    WordPress.com Adds Support for New Pocket Casts Block

    WordPress.com has expanded its library of blocks to include a new Pocket Casts block that makes it easy to embed any show or episode in the WordPress editor. The block is branded for Pocket Casts and will display a podcast player and a selection of episodes when the show URL is selected. Alternatively, users can…

  • WordPress to Explore Using GitHub Codespaces for Improving Contributor Experience

    WordPress to Explore Using GitHub Codespaces for Improving Contributor Experience

    WordPress lead developer Helen Hou-Sandí has proposed using GitHub Codespaces to improve the contributor experience. GitHub recently announced the availability of GitHub Codespaces, its quick launch cloud-based developer environment, for all users, with 60 hours free per month for Free users and 90 hours for Pro users. Codespaces makes it possible to launch any GitHub…

  • WooCommerce 7.1 Adds Cart Block Cross-Sells, Includes High Performance Order Storage Behind a Feature Flag

    WooCommerce 7.1 Adds Cart Block Cross-Sells, Includes High Performance Order Storage Behind a Feature Flag

    WooCommerce 7.1 was released yesterday, delivering on time with the highly anticipated custom order tables feature, which was renamed to “High-Performance Order Storage” (HPOS). This is a major undertaking that implements custom tables for orders, products, and coupons, and promises significant performance gains for stores. Contributors have been working on HPOS throughout 2022 but have been…