• Rank Math SEO Launches a Content AI Feature

    Rank Math SEO Launches a Content AI Feature

    Last week, the popular Rank Math SEO plugin received a major update that includes a new artificial intelligence system. The Content AI feature is a SaaS product that behaves like a personal writing assistant to boost search rankings. “We built Rank Math’s Content AI feature to revolutionize the content production and optimization process with proprietary…

  • Wowmall: A Free Experimental WooCommerce Block Theme

    Wowmall: A Free Experimental WooCommerce Block Theme

    The Wowmall theme was released to the public today. It is the second 100% block theme that integrates with WooCommerce to land in the WordPress directory. Responsive FSE was the first. Two weeks ago, a reader sent in a question for the Ask the Bartender column. He wanted to know where the WooCommerce block themes…

  • State of the Word 2021 Will Be Broadcast Live from New York City on December 14

    State of the Word 2021 Will Be Broadcast Live from New York City on December 14

    WordPress executive director Josepha Haden Chomphosy announced today that the 2021 State of the Word will be held on December 14, between 5 and 7 pm ET/10 – 12 am (December 15) UTC. For those who are new to the WordPress community, this event is where Matt Mullenweg reviews the milestones and progress of the…

  • “Skins” Are Back in Style, Proposal for Themes To Bundle User-Selectable Design Variations

    “Skins” Are Back in Style, Proposal for Themes To Bundle User-Selectable Design Variations

    A current proposal could spell the death of at least one form of child theming. The feature would allow themes to ship multiple theme.json files, housing variations on a site’s default styles. Essentially, it is the old-school concept of “skins.” How the feature would work is not yet defined. However, theme authors would presumably be…

  • Gutenberg 11.9 Focuses on Navigation Menus and Block Theming

    Gutenberg 11.9 Focuses on Navigation Menus and Block Theming

    Gutenberg 11.9 landed on Wednesday, and it is packed with dozens of enhancements. Contributors are speeding forward, getting in some of the final features before the release of WordPress 5.9, expected on December 14. Version 11.9 is the last plugin release to include new features for the upcoming WordPress update. Bug fixes will continue to…

  • GoDaddy Acquires Pagely to Deploy New WooCommerce SaaS Product

    GoDaddy Acquires Pagely to Deploy New WooCommerce SaaS Product

    GoDaddy has acquired managed WordPress hosting company Pagely to expand the company’s expertise in hosting WooCommerce stores. Pagely, co-founded by Joshua and Sally Strebel, has been in business for 18 years, offering hosting for businesses and enterprises at the higher end of the managed hosting market. “We will be working closely with the amazing team…

  • Proposed Web Fonts API Not Coming to WordPress 5.9, Possibly Landing in Gutenberg First

    Proposed Web Fonts API Not Coming to WordPress 5.9, Possibly Landing in Gutenberg First

    After what seemed like a shoo-in for WordPress 5.9, a proposed web font API was put on hold. The feature would standardize how theme and plugin developers load fonts and lay the groundwork for future user-facing features. Jono Alderson opened a ticket for the feature in February 2019. In recent months, the proposal picked up…

  • Lemon Squeezy Launches WordPress Plugin

    Lemon Squeezy Launches WordPress Plugin

    Lemon Squeezy, a hosted e-commerce platform for selling digital products, subscriptions, and software licenses, launched a WordPress plugin. The plugin allows the platform’s customers to sell their products directly on WordPress sites. Merchants sign up, create products, and manage customers and subscribers using the Lemon Squeezy platform. Then they use the plugin to connect via…

  • Radio Station PRO Launches, Offers New Tools for Live Broadcasters

    Radio Station PRO Launches, Offers New Tools for Live Broadcasters

    In June, netmix® CEO Tony Zeoli began touting the release of the company’s Radio Station PRO plugin. It would offer an upgraded experience over the free version his team had maintained since 2019. At the end of last month, the company officially launched its commercial offering, a plan that had been in the works since…

  • New Block Plugin Displays Post Formats

    New Block Plugin Displays Post Formats

    Are you using post formats? Now there’s a block for that! WordPress’ post formats feature was introduced in version 3.1 as a way for themes to customize presentation of a post. It allows users to choose the way a post looks by selecting a post format from a dropdown list. WordPress has a fixed list…

  • WordPress Polyglots Team Launches New Monthly Newsletter

    WordPress Polyglots Team Launches New Monthly Newsletter

    WordPress’ Polyglots team has published the first edition of a new monthly newsletter aimed at helping contributors stay informed and engaged with the team’s activities. WordPress has been translated by volunteers for more than 15 years since version 1.2, with the earliest contributions from the Hindi, French, Japanese, and Norwegian communities. Since that time the…

  • Block Pattern Modal Explorer Coming to WordPress 5.9

    Block Pattern Modal Explorer Coming to WordPress 5.9

    It has been a long year since Paal Joachim Romdahl’s proposed an alternative block pattern experience. In November 2020, he opened a ticket on the Gutenberg GitHub repository to explore an overlay-based approach to viewing, searching, and inserting patterns into the content canvas. Late last week, a pull request for the long-awaited feature landed in…