As we enter Q2 of 2023, more activity in the WordPress space is noticeable. Be it new plugin releases or the first tease of upcoming features. Plus the usual: new acquisitions, plugin updates, and a lot of WordCamp + Online Events action.
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What’s Buzzing in WordPress 💖
- Next in Block Plugins… the Kadence team previewed the upcoming AI-driven new design library which allows more customization options when you build a Kadence powered website using design elements from the library. While Spectra 2.4.0 (Mar 15, 2023) has added new blocks for countdown and icons, along with a lightbox feature for the image gallery block – the pro version is coming soon!
- New Plugins… Daman Jeet shared about the release of the new free FunnelKit Cart plugin which adds a beautiful sliding cart to your WooCommerce site, the pro version is already available to FunnelKit Plus plan users. Also, EDD has an all-new way of using the plugin with the launch of EDD Pro, which consolidates features of the EDD free plugin on the WordPress directory and premium add-ons.
- Coming Soon… the Beaver Builder team teased the new marketplace feature in their Assistant Pro service that would allow buying and selling of templates of various page builders. Also, Breakdance 1.3 Alpha 1 is now available, indicating many new features coming in this builder plugin, like WooCommerce custom product loops, mega menus, and native SVG uploads.
Extended WordPress Buzz 🔥
- Acquisition Train & Investment… Automattic has acquired the ActivityPub plugin and recruited its developer. With this plugin, replies that are posted on a federated site like Mastodon become blog post comments on WP(.)org and (.)com blogs. Joost and Marieke via Emilia Capital have invested in Equalize Digital to accelerate the growth of the Accessibility Checker WordPress Plugin.
- New Core Blocks… Gutenberg 15.3 update has added a new Time to Read block and Duotone design tool enhancements. While WooCommerce 7.5 release added three new blocks for store breadcrumbs, product results count, and catalog sorting.
- People of WordPress… Yoast is seeing a CEO change as Thijs de Valk has decided to step down to pursue other dreams. Also, WPCampus has restructured and announced its inaugural board of directors, with David Dashifen Kees in the president position.
- WP Milestones… David Vongries shared about the Ultimate Dashboard plugin reaching impressive 50k+ active installs; it also has a pro version with extended features. Also, the WP Hive Chrome Extension from WeDevs has achieved the 10000+ active users milestone. While Underrepresented in Tech podcast is celebrating 10,000+ downloads – congrats!
- WordCamps Action… two WordCamps are officially on the calendar: WordCamp Sylhet 2023 in Bangladesh, scheduled for May 19, 2023, and the WordCamp Buffalo at Kenmore, NY, scheduled for May 6, 2023. Also, the first set of speakers has been announced for WordCamp Lisboa 2023, scheduled for May 19, 2023.
- Online WP Events… WordPress Co-founder Matt Mullenweg will be a special guest at the WP Engine’s DE{CODE} Developer Conference on March 21, 2023. Also, the speaker application is now open for Atarim’s Web Agency Summit 2023 for WordPress users.
Quick Bits 👍
- Free SEO Schema course at SkillJet Academy by Dave Swift.
- Fluent Support 1.6.9 use Google Captcha in registration forms.
- Always insightful, WPFusion’s 2022 review has been published.
- ForGravity has rebranded to a new name, which is CosmicGiant.
- Participate in Wapuu Coloring Giveaway and win WP20 swag.
Focus: New Integrations & Product Updates
New Integrations… MailMint has added Elementor Forms integration allowing you to collect leads directly using Elementor Forms and send them to a specific list with a custom tag. While the A/B Split Test 1.3.13 (March 16, 2023) has added a powerful webhooks feature in the agency plan for connecting with Slack, Zapier, and more.
Product Updates… the Posts Tables Pro plugin from the Barn2 team now has a table generator feature that allows quick creation of tables with custom data and AJAX lazy loading option. While Formidable Forms has added a custom PDF-generating feature to the plugin with the option to export individual form submissions to PDF and generate a downloadable PDF file.
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