A year ago today, Automattic acquired WooThemes. Since joining Automattic, lots has happened under the WooTeam. This post takes a look at some of the big changes WooMattic has made in the past year and where it’s headed. But first check out this video: Growth When WooThemes started in Sept. 2011, it had zero downloads, nine themes, and six extensions. Now, the company has 13.8 billion downloads and is the most popular ecommerce solution. According to built with, 37 percent of all eCommerce sites use WooCommerce, and that number doesn’t seem to be slowing down. In April, the first WooConf since the […]
WordPress 4.6 Will Drop Open Sans In The Admin
Since 2013, WordPress has used Open Sans as the default font for the admin panel. For a number of years, Open Sans has been around, and considering the fact that Open Sans in itself is a really popular and pretty good-looking font, it has become a staple feature in the WordPress admin panel. However, all of that is expected to change pretty soon. The upcoming version, WordPress 4.6, is planning to ditch Open Sans in favor of system fonts in the admin panel. Overview Here is what WordPress lead developer, Helen Hou-Sandi, stated in her commit message: “Rejoice, for your […]
New Broker System To Ease REST API Authentication Challenges
Since the beginning of the REST API project, authentication has been one of its biggest challenges. Although cookie-based authentication solves issues for JavaScript code running on the site, external sites have a more difficult time, which makes authentication in the REST API project inadequate. Co-founder of Human Made Joe Hoyle on Sunday announced the Authentication Broker System, a solution that aims to solve the decentralized registration problem. The broker can be found at https://apps.wp-api.org/, where you can sign up as a developer and create your app directly. In addition, the specifications for the system can be found at https://apps.wp-api.org/spec/. The two biggest roadblocks to authentication […]
Categories And Tags Screens To Be More Accessible
WordPress.org yesterday announced that WordPress 4.6 will include an update to how categories and tags are displayed. The visual order of the main elements will match the tab order. Geared toward people who use keyboard commands or screen readers, the change will make WordPress more accessible. “The main functionality in a page should just be the first thing in the source markup and other parts of the user interface should never be ‘skipped,’” the annoucment said. Currently, the ‘Tags’ screen looks like this: Content navigators have a difficult time finding the ‘Add New Tag’ box because it is located at […]
The WordPress Plugin Directory: What Does The Future Hold?
Though the REST API has been hogging the headlines over the last 12 months, there’s also been significant recent work on two areas traditionally at the heart of WordPress: the Theme Directory and the Plugin Directory. With version three of the Plugin Directory marching towards a provisional late June release, now is an excellent time to look at what’s coming down the pipeline in that regard. It’s a potentially major step forward for plugin authors and users, and set to be one of the most significant changes to the platform this year. In this piece, we’ll tee up the much-anticipated imminent […]
WordPress vs Medium – How to Choose the Right Platform
Although it is the most successful, WordPress is far from being the only online publishing platform or content management system. I recently already compared it to Drupal, another important player in the game. While Drupal competes with WordPress as a solution for website creation, there is one big area WordPress has long dominated: blogging. And no wonder, all you need is hosting, a domain, the latest version of WordPress, and you can have your own blog up and running within minutes. If you use a hosted version of WordPress, you can even skip the entire server setup. However, in recent years […]
WordPress.org Updates Hosting Recommendations
WordPress.org updated the hosting recommendations on their site, a revamp that has been in motion for nearly a year. DreamHost, SiteGround, and Flywheel have joined Bluehost as recommended hosting providers on WordPress.org/hosting. There are, however, some notable omissions from the lineup, like popular hosting providers WP Engine, Pagely, and more. The WordPress.org team last year announced that they were starting from scratch with the hosting page, and subsequently released a 40-question survey asking hosts various questions about their technology, customers, and more. On the hosting page, WordPress.org notes that the list is “completely arbitrary,” but hosts must meet a certain criteria to be listed. The […]
7 Of The Best Drag-And-Drop Page Builder Plugins For WordPress
You don’t need to have studied web design to use WordPress, or have an advanced degree in PHP or CSS. WordPress is the world’s most popular website building tool for a reason: it empowers even its most inexperienced users to build fully functional, great looking websites with the minimum amount of fuss. All you need is a theme, and you’re good to go. It doesn’t matter what niche you plan to operate in either, as you can easily find a well-designed theme fit for just about any purpose. In recent years, though, we WordPress users have become more demanding. We […]
Modern Tribe Sponsors WPCampus And Higher Education
Last week, it was announced that Modern Tribe will sponsor WPCampus. “Modern Tribe has been an active supporter of the WPCampus community and we are proud to have them as one of our Vice-President sponsors for this year’s conference,” the announcement said. But that isn’t the beginning of the company’s involvement in higher education. CEO of Modern Tribe, Shane Pearlman talked to Torque about higher education and WordPress. “Any time we have the opportunity to engage with bright people solving similar problems to the ones we consistently run into, it catches our attention,” Pearlman said. “Out of that community a number […]
Automattic Wages War On ‘Woo’ Domain Names
“Automattic is actively asking businesses having the word ‘woo’ in their domain name to change the domain name,” WP Mayor wrote Monday in a blog post. The first known site to bow to the pressure is WooGPL, a WooCommerce plugin and extension company. WooGPL owner Billy Ablett announced in March that he will close up shop in June in an effort to “keep the peace.” Automattic contacted Ablett and claimed his use of the word “Woo” constituted trademark infringement, the announcement stated. WooGPL’s announcement points out that the company has been operating for two years and Automattic’s trademark on Woo began in October 2015, roughly five months after Automattic acquired […]
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