Tidbits from Brian - Issue #30
Keeping the same new habits post-pandemic. 🗓️
Has anyone else unintentionally kept a lot of the same habits post-pandemic?
I used to go to the movies almost every weekend. It was one of those things I did to get away from work and recharge. But I haven't been back in years. 🍿
I used to go out to eat 3-4 times a week (yes, very unhealthy). Now I only go once a week when running errands. All other meals are prepared at home. 🧑🍳
I used to get a haircut every month. I've cut my own hair now for years. ✂️
I simply formed new habits during that time, and they stuck with me. The good news is I save a lot more money. 😅 And probably couldn’t come at a better time.
It’s ridiculous how expensive everything is right now. I’ve even started putting things back on the shelf at the grocery store simply because it’s twice the price from a few years ago, and I can’t justify the cost. So even my grocery shopping habits have changed.
I remember, as a kid, we had a dollar theater where we lived. Yes, $1.00. 💵 Those were the days!
The real question is, how does a change in habits at scale impact the entire economy? For example, where I live, many local businesses haven’t survived and closed down for good.
Updates ✍️
We pushed out two updates for our Perfmatters WordPress plugin. Here are a few of the changes:
Added new perfmatters_critical_image_parent_exclusions filter.
Added new perfmatters_leading_image_parent_exclusions filter.
These filters are incredibly powerful, allowing you to exclude assets from preload critical or leading image exclusions using a "parent class" 👨👩👦👦, as the asset itself (<img> tag) doesn't always have a unique class on it. We are also using DOMDocument instead of regex to allow support for targeting images inside nested containers.
It's great for fine-tuning above the fold/LCP while working around things like images in a mega menu or multilingual flags. Preload and lazy load more precisely in complex setups down to the KB. ⚡
Added new option to disable the fetch priority attribute added by WordPress core.
Added new perfmatters_defer_jquery filter.
Added CSS Background Image support for the footer element. 🖼️
Added built-in WooCommerce CSS selector exclusion for better compatibility on single product posts.
Added Breakdance request parameters to excluded page builders array.
Added a REST API exception for WP Recipe Maker.
Added Delay JS quick exclusions for Kadence Blocks, Kadence Blocks Pro, and Monumetric Ads.
Updated content URL reference to use content_url function instead of constant when generating root directory path. 🛣️
Fixed an issue where dynamic preload version numbers would sometimes get added to the wrong resource.
Fixed an issue with certain multilingual setups where the base URL for generated files was incorrect. 🌎
Updated background processing and CSS parser libraries.
Fixed an issue where certain scripts were not being deferred properly when delay JavaScript option was also enabled. 🐛
Fixed an issue where abnormal image URLs would sometimes generate a warning when trying to parse for image dimensions.
Minor style updates to plugin UI.
Interesting things 🔎
Misc.
Say goodbye to the 6% commission for real estate agents in the U.S. It will be interesting to see how this impacts the housing market, which is a disaster at the moment.
Visa and Mastercard reached a $30 billion settlement over credit card fees. This is good news for small businesses. Reducing swipe rates by four basis points isn’t a lot, but every little bit helps.
The Federal Reserve posts a record loss of $114.3 billion in 2023. Wow.
WordPress
WordPress 6.5 has been delayed by a week. As always, Carlo has written up an excellent deep dive into all the new features coming out. Sadly, the Font Library is only for block themes (for the moment). 😐
Justin revived an old post about using deceptive practices on WordPress plugin pricing pages. I’m ashamed to admit we used to do this too. But no more!
The Cwicly page builder is shutting down. This came as a surprise to many using it and brought up some debates about the risks of third-party dependencies.
GenerateBlocks is about to get game-changing features! I recommend checking out these two videos from Kyle on GB updates and his interview with Tom Usborne.
Is Tumblr and WordPress selling data to train AI tools? An interesting article.
Kinsta launched a new feature to reset your WordPress site and three new API endpoints for Application Hosting (CDN, edge cache, and clear cache). I’ve still been meaning to create a Slackbot. Austin is definitely taking full advantage of their API. 😅
Aurelio, the CEO of WP Umbrella, shared his struggles dealing with multiple phishing attempts. We had the same thing happen to us a while back. It’s so frustrating and time-consuming. Added a few tips in his thread.
Performance
We’ve published a doc on our site about Interaction to Next Paint (INP), the new Core Web Vitals metric introduced on March 12, 2024. Make sure to bookmark it, as we’ll be updating it regularly.
Zaraz launches new pricing. For those of you who aren’t aware, Zaraz is a Google Tag Manager alternative. It can be a good way to reduce the main thread by offloading third-party JS entirely to the edge, which sometimes helps with INP.
Imagify has released support for AVIF images. According to Caniuse, AVIF support is now 92%+ across all devices and browsers. ⚡
Need a brush-up on image optimization? Here’s a good overview from the team at DeploymentHawk.
Elementor launched two performance improvements in version 3.20: faster TTFB and better DOM optimization.
Kinsta launched its 37th data center in Dammam, eastern Saudi Arabia, the second in the Middle East. You can use GCPing to test ping times from your location.
Marketing
Moz charts 10 years of the Google Algorithm. The last few years have been incredibly volatile. 😮
Jesse Cunningham shares what he’s been doing to prepare for Google updates using ChatGPT and SEO.
Mimestream, my favorite Gmail client, launched a few new features in version 1.3.0. You can now deep link to messages and block address suggestions.
Affinity was acquired by Canva. We’ll have to wait and see what happens going forward. I have a feeling they will move towards a subscription model.
AI
Anthropic announces the Claude 3 family of AI models, offering a range of capabilities from fast and affordable to powerful and expensive.
These videos created with Sora are pretty amazing!
Bitcoin (not financial advice)
The Brave browser wallet now supports bitcoin.
Whether you hate BlackRock or not, the fact that their CEO is on mainstream media stating that their bitcoin ETF is the fastest-growing in the history of ETFs is a pretty big deal. What a time to be alive.
Bitcoin ETFs could be added to state retirement portfolios in Arizona.
Strike is on fire lately. They just launched Strike Business and revamped their system limits.
Crypto and green hydrogen form dynamic duo to thwart climate change. An interesting article.
The Human Rights Foundation grants $500,000 to 14 bitcoin projects worldwide.
If you're in the Scottsdale, AZ area, hit me up, and we can grab lunch! 🥗👋