Automattic announced another round of funding today, a $300 million Series D investment from Salesforce Ventures, giving the company a $3 billion valuation post-funding. The last time Automattic raised money was $160 million in a Series C round in 2014. Since that time the company has grown to more than 950 employees and made strategic…
WordPress theme and plugin developer Ben Gillbanks is building a Jetpack alternative with an emphasis on speed, simplicity, and privacy. Toolbelt is a new, lightweight plugin that offers a collection of functionality that is commonly-used on WordPress sites. Currently available modules include features like breadcrumbs, browser native lazy loading, a Portfolio custom post type, related…
Jetpack 7.6 was released this week with several improvements to the plugin’s AMP compatibility. Automattic was one of the earliest publishing partners on Google’s AMP project, as well as the original author of the official AMP plugin for WordPress. This release makes three more Jetpack features compatible with AMP: Related Posts now display on AMP…
In this episode, John James Jacoby and I are joined by Jill Binder, Founder, and Chief Consultant and Trainer at Diverse Speakers In Tech. We discussed how and why the Diverse Speaker Training group was created, how the training encourages underrepresented people to speak at WordCamps, and how the recent 50% sponsorship funds from Automattic…
Jetpack 7.4 is now available and includes a new Business Hours block. This block contains a toggle that users can set to show whether they’re open or closed. There’s also a way to add additional times so restaurants, for example, can display when they’re open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. However, I couldn’t figure out…
Jetpack has opened a signup for the beta of its upcoming Membership feature in order to collect feedback from potential testers. The changelog for version 7.3, released two weeks ago, hinted at a new Membership block coming to the plugin. The work in progress was added behind the JETPACK_BETA_BLOCKS constant, presumably in preparation for wider…
Jetpack 7.3 was released last week and if you didn’t read the changelog, you may have missed that the spelling and grammar checking module that uses After the Deadline has been retired. “Grammar and Spelling: Remove from Jetpack. We’ve chekced the spelling alot over the years, but now time to retire.” From the Jetpack 7.3…
Pressing Topics is a daily podcast hosted by Malcolm Peralty and myself. We discuss the news that’s making headlines in the WordPress ecosystem as well as related topics that catch our eyes. Generally speaking, if you listen to this show on a daily basis, you should have a good idea on what’s going on in…
*Update* The previous mp3 attached to this post inadvertently ended around the 31 minute mark. I’ve reuploaded the episode and corrected the problem. The full episode is attached below. In this episode, John James Jacoby and I share what’s new in WordPress 5.2, discuss why not capitalizing one letter can make or break someone in…
Jetpack 7.3 was released yesterday with changes that improve the “out of the box” experience. The plugin now enables fewer features on setup so users can have more control over what they activate on their sites. The new version also integrates with WordPress 5.2’s new Site Health checks. It includes a status check and moves…
Earlier this month, Jetpack 7.1 added suggestions to the plugin search screen, a controversial change that has sparked debate this week. When users search for a plugin that matches a term for an existing Jetpack feature, the plugin now inserts an artificial, dismissible search result into the first plugin card slot, identifying the corresponding Jetpack…
In this episode, John James Jacoby and I discuss a controversial feature in Jetpack 7.1 that adds feature suggestions to plugin search results. We also talk about extension suggestions that are coming to WooCommerce. We talk about the security implications from the recent investigations into the Pipdig plugin and what users can do about it.…
Yesterday the discussion surrounding Jetpack’s implementation of feature suggestions in the plugin search screen became heated after developers pointed out that Automattic is also using these suggestions to promote paid upgrades. You can test this by searching for “backups” where you find that Jetpack’s commercial offering takes the place of the first result, pushing all…
Jetpack 7.1 was released earlier this month with new blocks for WordAds, Business Hours, Contact Info, Slideshows, and Videos. This release also quietly added suggestions to the plugin search screen, a change that has not been well-received by the developer community. If a user searches for a plugin that has a feature that is already…
In this episode, John James Jacoby and I review feedback from last week’s show, share a few more memories of Alex Mills, and discuss an article that describes what it’s like to be a content moderator for Facebook. We also share our opinions on the idea of WordPress having shorter release cycles. Stories Discussed: The…