One of the most thought-provoking statements to come out of WordCamp Europe 2022, was when Matt Mullenweg said, “I believe that Gutenberg can be a bigger contribution to the world than WordPress itself.” This isn’t the first time Mullenweg has cast this vision of Gutenberg’s preeminence as an open source project. In the Q&A following…
Gutenberg lead architect Matías Ventura has identified refinements to experiences introduced in 5.9 and 6.0 as the main goal for the upcoming 6.1 release. He published the roadmap for 6.1 ahead of the closing session at WordCamp Europe in Porto, where he was scheduled to join Matt Mullenweg and Josepha Haden Chomphosy for a demo.…
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…
WordPress’ Five for the Future program, an initiative that encourages organizations to contribute five percent of their resources to WordPress development, is poised to adopt an official definition for what constitutes pledges and contributions. Two weeks ago, WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy proposed the program make a clear distinction between ecosystem contributions and core…
InstaWP has received an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Automattic. The service launched in July 2021 as a quick way to set up testing or disposable WordPress sites and users frequently commented on remarkable speed of the tool, which spins up a site in less than a second. Founder Vikas Singhal said the investment gives…
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…
Today marks 19 years since 19-year old Matt Mullenweg partnered with Mike Little to release the first version of WordPress based on the b2/cafelog software. The blog where he shared his thoughts on life and tech was starting to get more traffic and he wanted to ensure its future after the b2/cafelog’s main developer disappeared.…
Gutenberg 13.3 was released this week with support for an experimental new Table of Contents block. It is perfect for longform content that is organized by multiple headings within the document. The block automatically detects Heading blocks within the content and will display them with anchor links that jump to each section. Users may select…
After a lengthy discussion, the Community Team has decided to make it easier for organizers to apply for regional in-person WordCamps. These are events that pull in a community from a geographical area larger than one city or metro area. In past years, WordPress Community Support (WCS) saddled regional events with numerous additional requirements beyond…
WordPress.com announced a new “Starter” plan today for customers that bridges the pricing gap between the free plan and its $15/month Pro plan. The Starter plan is $5/month and includes a custom domain name, along with 6GB storage, and the ability to use payment collection blocks (Donations Form, Premium Content, and Payment Button). When WordPress.com…
WordPress 6.0 “Arturo” was released today, named for Latin jazz musician and director Arturo O’Farrill, who has 15 albums to his credit. Check out the official release video for a quick overview of some of the most important changes. This release introduces sweeping improvements to the block editor and its utilities and design tools. Most…
The Open Source Initiative (OSI), a public benefit corporation and steward of the Open Source Definition, has launched a news blog on WordPress. In 2021, OSI’s board appointed Stefano Maffulli as its first Executive Director, and he is leading the organization in overhauling its web presence. “One of the main objectives for OSI in 2022 is…