Who does not like new stuff? A lot of new jazz appeared in the WordPress ecosystem this week, from templates to plugins to a marketplace. Plus, the talking heads to decide if auto-updates should be kept enabled or disabled for bigger websites after the upcoming WordPress 5.5. release.
New Launches 💡
- Elementor Templates Library added to the PowerPack Elements plugin. In the initial launch, 150+ creative section design blocks have been made available for quick layout building.
- Gijo Varghese has launched a new speed optimization plugin called Flying Press. Another competitor for WP Rocket plugin, one the most popular in the WordPress website optimization space.
- Elegant Themes has launched the official Divi Marketplace for 3rd party addons & themes. A good move for the ecosystem of Divi users – wonder if Elementor would do the same?
- Not new but new to me, a social sharing plugin called WP Socializer. Rajendra Zore shared this as “WP Socializer is a clear winner in Free Social Sharing Plugins”. For sure, looks good!
Extended WordPress Bits 🤠
- Elementor world… is buzzing as usual like the new official integration of Elementor with LearnDash (plugin for courses). David McCan took a deep dive exploring OoohBoi Steroids for Elementor.
- Blocks Life… here is an index resource to keep up with everything Gutenberg development related. While we wait for WP 5.5. release – here is a chance to share your ideas for WP 5.6 release.
- Big Google… no wonder “41% of the first page of Google search results is taken up by Google products“. And, John Mueller of Google shared “… forget everything you read about link juice”.
- And the Unsplash saga… in the WordPress community continues. The latest is Matt Mullenweg adding a one-star review with a detailed comment on the Unsplash plugin listing – more splashes!
Quick Bits 👍
- NovaShare added new share buttons for Hacker News & SMS.
- Siteground updated SG Optimizer plugin for faster websites.
- One click cleanups feature live on Malcare for quick cleaning.
- RankMath changed how it measures meta title, description length.
- A fun video by Paid Membership Pro to celebrate 100,000+ installs.
- Google Fonts now fully support variable fonts for fun like this.
- WordCamp US 2020 cancelled both offline and online events.
[The View] WP 5.5 & Auto Updates 💣
WordPress 5.5 release will extend auto-updates feature to plugins and theme(s) updates. This looks like a good decision for small WordPress websites using a limited number of plugins and not much custom code.
However, for large websites with a lot of plugins and custom code like membership, courses, e-commerce – leaving auto-updates enabled may not be the best way forward. Obviously, there are ways to disable auto-updates selectively. Which way are you leaning? Keep auto-updates enable or disable them?
