Google Redesigns ‘How Search Works’ Website
Google’s new page on search features allows you to consume all the content seamlessly by scrolling down the page. No clicking necessary.
In fairness, while I couldn’t find any new information on the updated site, what was already there was plenty sufficient
After writing a whole post announcing the redesign, Google’s Danny Sullivan got the news out on Twitter as well which made this feel like a major change.
If you looked at the site thinking, “what’s new?” The answer is: not a lot!
This is the kind of update that probably would have gone unnoticed had Google not said anything about it.
You can judge for yourself by perusing the updates to the How Search Works site.
Source: Google Redesigns ‘How Search Works’ Website
Gutenberg 11.3 Introduces Dimensions Panel, Adds Button Padding Support, and Speeds Up the Inserter
Gutenberg 11.3 landed in the WordPress plugin directory. The latest update introduces a new dimensions panel for toggling spacing-related block options. The Button block now supports the padding control, and the Post Featured Image block has new width and height settings.
One of the release’s highlights was a speed improvement for both opening and searching within the inserter. The opening time dropped over 200 ms, from 370.35 ms to 137.28 ms. Search speed went from 190.37 ms to 67.24 ms.
The latest release includes a simplified color picker library. Rich previews for links, a feature introduced in Gutenberg 10.9 for external URLs, now works with internal site links.
Theme authors should enjoy the reduced specificity of the reset and classic editor stylesheets. Such changes always make it a little easier for theme authors to match editor and front-end styling.
Source: Gutenberg 11.3 Introduces Dimensions Panel, Adds Button Padding Support, and Speeds Up the Inserter
WooCommerce 5.7.0 Beta 1
The first beta for WooCommerce 5.7.0 is now available as part of the September release cycle. You can download directly from WordPress.org or through our WooCommerce Beta Tester Plugin.
Highlights
- Product variations manual menu ordering is now working correctly.
- The Marketplace section has been redesigned with better styling and usability.
- Added local currency formatting support.
- Reverted legacy Select2 library back to version 4.0.3 (Previously overwritten by SelectWoo 1.0.9).
- Product attribute permalinks now work correctly with non-ascii characters.
- WooCommerce Blocks 5.6.0, and 5.7.0. These updates contain a number of enhancements, bug fixes, and improvements.
- WooCommerce Admin 2.6.0. This update contains a number of enhancements, bug fixes and improvements.
You can see more notable improvements in this list of PRs. For all the changes in all the included packages, see the changelog file.
Filters and actions
This release adds one hook:
| Hook | Description |
| woocommerce_product_options_external | Action hook fired when in general tab of a product in admin when displaying external product. |
Source: WooCommerce 5.7.0 Beta 1
An Update on the Classic Editor Plugin
Before the release of WordPress 5.0 in 2018, the Classic Editor plugin was published to help ease the transition to the new block editor. At the time, we promised to support the plugin through 2021 and adjust if needed as the deadline got closer. After discussing this with Matt, it’s clear that continuing to support the plugin through 2022 is the right call for the project as well as the community.
Still, if you’ve been putting off using the block editor, this is an excellent time to give it another shot. Since it first appeared in 2018, hundreds of WordPress contributors have made a lot of updates based on user feedback. You will be pleasantly surprised at how far it’s come!
Big thanks to everyone who has been working on WordPress, Gutenberg, and the Classic Editor plugin. And thank you to every WordPress user and tester who has provided the feedback we need to make the software even better.
Source: An Update on the Classic Editor Plugin
WordPress Vulnerability Report: August 2021, Part 4
Vulnerable plugins and themes are the #1 reason WordPress websites get hacked. The weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report powered by WPScan covers recent WordPress plugin, theme, and core vulnerabilities, and what to do if you run one of the vulnerable plugins or themes on your website.
Each vulnerability will have a severity rating of Low, Medium, High, or Critical. Responsible disclosure and reporting of vulnerabilities is an integral part of keeping the WordPress community safe.
Source: WordPress Vulnerability Report: August 2021, Part 4
Gallery Block Refactor Expected To Land in WordPress 5.9
Last week, a GitHub pull request I had been watching since October 2020 on the Gutenberg repository was finally merged into the codebase. It changes the structure of the WordPress Gallery block to be a container for nested Image blocks. The new format is expected to land in WordPress 5.9.
For those who want to begin testing it early, it should ship with Gutenberg 11.4 next week. However, you can grab the nightly test version from Gutenberg Times to see it in action now. To use the new Gallery format, you must enable it from the Gutenberg > Experiments admin screen.
“If you have ever added a custom link to an image block and then tried to do the same on a Gallery image, you will understand the frustration and confusion of not having consistency between different types of image blocks,” wrote Glenn Davies in the refactor announcement post. “This inconsistency is because the core Gallery block stores the details of the included images as nested <img> elements within the block content. Therefore, the images within a gallery look and behave different from images within an individual image block.”
At the surface level, the Gallery block refactor does not change much for many users. They will still add images to galleries as they have for years. However, for more advanced usage, it opens a world of possibilities.
One oft-requested feature is the ability to add links to individual images in galleries. In the past, users could only link to attachment pages or the media file itself. Both options applied to all images. With the most recent change, users can modify each Image block, including customizing its link.
Source: Gallery Block Refactor Expected To Land in WordPress 5.9
More News: Google is working on rewriting Title Tags in SERPs
