I do not know how I overlooked LIQUID SPEECH BALLOON. The plugin is less than a month shy of being three years old, and I follow block-related projects religiously. This one slipped through the cracks, at least until I haphazardly stumbled upon it when searching for something else entirely. It is also relatively popular for a single-block plugin. There are …
Microsoft Bing Releases New IndexNow Plugin for WordPress
In July 2020, Bing released its first official plugin for WordPress that allowed site owners to submit URLS and get their content indexed immediately, instead of waiting for the search engine to crawl the site. The IndexNow API, which debuted in October 2021, is the next evolution of the Bing URL submissions API, created by Microsoft Bing and Yandex. Bing …
New WordPress Plugin Offers a Markdown Editor Solution
Earlier today, a new editor plugin named Markup Markdown landed in the WordPress directory. It replaces both the classic and block editors with a Markdown solution. It is the first plugin by an author simply known as Peter, or @peter202202. As someone who almost always writes in Markdown, I did not think twice about downloading, installing, and activating it. I …
Gutenberg 12.3 Introduces New Blocks, Design Options, and a Complete Core Blocks Reference
The first Gutenberg plugin release of the year contains loads of features. Developers should enjoy a completed core blocks reference. Group block spacing controls offer more layout flexibility, and a new Post Author Name block has arrived on the scene. Overall, the site editing experience is shaping up. The latest release adds a couple of nice-to-have design options. The Group …
A Throwback to the Past: Retro Winamp Block
In mid-November, I happened upon a block plugin called Retro Winamp Block. As many of our readers know, I am always on the lookout for those WordPress extensions that remind me of the era when I first started using computers and exploring the web. The plugin seemed to fit the bill. It had “retro” in the title, so it had …
Disable Over a Dozen WordPress Features With the No Nonsense Plugin
One of the best things about WordPress is the hundreds of ways of turning things off. There are likely dozens of plugins for disabling various items, each with its own unique set of options. No Nonsense is no different. It is a plugin that allows users to control whether they want to use over a dozen features. The plugin was …
All In One SEO Plugin Patches Severe Vulnerabilities
The All In One SEO plugin has patched a set of severe vulnerabilities that were discovered by the Jetpack Scan team two weeks ago. Version 4.1.5.3, released December 8, includes fixes for a SQL Injection vulnerability and a Privilege Escalation bug. Marc Montpas, the researcher who discovered the vulnerabilities, explained how they could be exploited: If exploited, the SQL Injection …
New Hummingbird Update Ushers In Unified Notifications, a New Wizard, and More!
Our well-loved page speed optimization suite just got even suite-er with a new version release! Hummingbird is here to make your holiday brighter. We’ve added a slew of new features and improvements, from a browser cache wizard (which automates the process), to a brand new Notifications dashboard widget―with all of your reports and notifiers combined. Keep reading to check out …
10up Releases the Publisher Media Kit WordPress Plugin
Earlier today, version 1.0 of 10up’s Publisher Media Kit went live in the WordPress plugin directory. It is a preconfigured set of blocks and patterns for jump-starting a media kit page for small and medium-sized publications. When I first noticed the plugin, my mind immediately jumped to press kits and branding pages for businesses. Not enough companies within the WordPress …
Surge: A New Page Caching Plugin for WordPress with No Configuration Required
WordPress Core Contributor Konstantin Kovshenin has released a new page caching plugin called Surge. Searching the WordPress plugin directory, you will find hundreds of caching and cache purging plugins, but this one stands out from competitors in that it requires no configuration. The plugin starts working as soon as it’s activated, and there are no options. What kind of performance …