Yesterday, we published allegations from Gijo Varghese against UpdraftPlus, the makers of WP-Optimize. Varghese is founder of FlyingProxy, a competing company, and identifies himself as a “performance enthusiast.” He accused the plugin of “cheating Pagespeed and other tools” by hiding JavaScript files from loading when users test their sites through popular performance testing tools. The…
Gijo Varghese, a developer who calls himself a “web performance enthusiast,” shocked WordPress users around the world over the weekend when he tweeted a screenshot of how WP-Optimize is allegedly preventing select JavaScript files from loading when users test their sites through popular performance testing tools. “When a site is loaded, the JavaScript files are…
For years, the vast majority of Akismet releases have been centered around bug fixes and improving compatibility with various plugins. Version 5.0 was released today, following 4.2.5 earlier this month, with a new feature that should improve Askismet’s ability to detect spam comments. Akismet engineer Christopher Finke explained how the plugin will now analyze how…
Gutenberg 13.7 was released this week with major updates to full-site editing (FSE) capabilities that expand custom template creation. Users can now create templates for custom taxonomies, specific terms, and single categories and tags. The update also includes the ability to create templates for specific pages. Clicking on “Add New” template and selecting Category will…
Last month WPZOOM released a free plugin called Block Patterns for Food Bloggers that I finally got the chance to test. Food blogs commonly have a strong focus on category and tag-driven grid layouts with big featured images and multiple sections showcasing different types of recipes. Prior to the block editor, customizing these types of…
WordPress’ Performance team is kickstarting a proposal for developing a plugin checker tool similar to the theme check plugin, which ensures themes are meeting the latest standards and best practices. In 2021, WordPress’ Meta team built a code scanner that detects potential security risks, such as unescaped SQL queries in plugin code, with the goal of reducing…
Two weeks ago, WordPress theme author Rich Tabor tweeted, “Even with my theme developer hat on, I’m finding it easier and easier to create block themes ~ within ~ WordPress. I’m positive one day (soon) this will be the norm.” It looks like that day has arrived sooner than expected, as Automattic has had a…
Awesome Motive, makers of popular plugins like OptinMonster, WPForms, and MonsterInsights, acquired WP Charitable this week. The plugin is used by more than 10,000 non-profits for creating fundraising campaigns and collecting online donations. It does not charge any transaction fees and currently has a 4.9/5-star average rating on WordPress.org. “Wes and I launched Charitable in…
Elementor, a popular website builder plugin that is active on more than five million websites, has acquired Strattic, a static and headless WordPress hosting company. Strattic will continue operating as “Strattic by Elementor” and the team will remain as its own unit within the company. Elementor founders Yoni Luksenberg and Ariel Klikstein met Strattic founder and…
If you have been navigating the WordPress plugin ecosystem for years, you may instinctively know how to examine and compare two or more plugins’ details pages to select the right solution for your needs. This task can be a big hurdle for newcomers to the platform. The prospect of narrowing down the right plugin from…
Delicious Brains, a WordPress product company founded in 2012 by Brad Touesnard, has sold five of its plugins to WP Engine: Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), WP Migrate, WP Offload Media, WP Offload SES, and Better Search Replace. Over the past four years, WP Engine has been scooping up developer tools through acquisitions, including StudioPress and the…
Jetpack announced today that it is splitting out six of its most popular features into individual plugins. Automattic reports that the company received feedback from developers and site owners asking for the ability to use specific components of Jetpack as part of their own “tech stack” of plugins. The six features that are now available…
LottieFiles, a company that hosts thousands of Lottie animations and helps designers create and test their animations, has just released an official plugin for WordPress. The company recently raised $37M in a Series B round, passed three million users on its website, and is investing in making motion design more accessible. Lottie’s open source animation…
Gutenberg 13.2 was released earlier today. While much of the developer community is gearing up for the WordPress 6.0 release in two weeks, work continues steadily on the plugin, driving future updates. The latest release is not as hefty on enhancements as previous updates but includes around four dozen bug fixes. Despite a heavy focus…
WPSiteSync, a content syncing plugin from the team behind DesktopServer, has discontinued support for its free, core plugin and commercial extensions. The plugin lets users sync specific content, such as posts, pages, featured images, and taxonomies, without having to migrate the entire database. Commercial extensions allowed users to sync things like WooCommerce products, Gutenberg blocks,…