Tidbits from Brian - Issue #32
Don't be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone. 💪
Most who know me fairly well would classify me as an extreme introvert and quiet person. My idea of a good time is staying at home and watching a movie or going on a bike ride. I’ve never been a fan of big crowds or traveling.
However, some of my fondest memories and things I’ll never forget are those when I stepped outside of my comfort zone. Which for me, is not an easy thing to do. I like routine.
For example, during high school, it was tradition for everyone to come up with something to perform before graduation (whether this was with a group or solo). What did I do? Well, I figured I might as well go out of high school with a bang. So I danced solo on stage to the song Numa Numa. 🕺 Let’s just say, my entire class and the audience seemed to really enjoy it, probably because it was very unexpected. That and I’m a terrible dancer. 😆 But I’ll never forget that experience!
Another example was during my time at Kinsta. They invited me to their headquarters in Budapest, Hungary. 🇭🇺 Having never been outside the US, this was a pretty eye-opening and, at first, a nerve-wracking experience.
First off, I have an autoimmune disease. So traveling can be difficult. Second, I’m probably the most typical and boring American you can think of. Plopping me down in the back alleyways of Budapest at night and trying to find my Airbnb with bars on the windows was a new experience! But a few days into the trip, I was navigating downtown Budapest without my phone. 🤳
It’s important to enjoy life’s little adventures! Even if you’re an introvert, it’s OK to step outside of your comfort zone occasionally, even if it’s for something silly or nerve-wracking. You might just end up creating a fantastic memory.
Updates ✍️
We pushed out three updates for our Perfmatters WordPress plugin. Here are a few of the changes:
Added new defer JavaScript option to include inline scripts.
Added new option to separate block styles.
Updated our staging site license key exception list with additional formats.
Added a new function to verify the preferred content type from the HTTP header when determining if JSON is being requested. This improves compatibility with certain hosting providers.
Updated Delay JS quick exclusion for Termageddon + UserCentrics for better compatibility.
Added additional built-in CSS selector exclusions for Splide.
Updated deferral exclusion check to work with entire tag instead of just src URL.
Moved to printing responsive embed styles for YouTube preview thumbnails in all cases for better compatibility.
Removed option to disable wlwmanifest link output as that function was deprecated in WordPress 6.3.
Fixed an issue where the license tab was showing up at the subsite level if the plugin was not network activated in a multisite environment.
Fixed an issue with DOMDocument where HTML entities coming from inline styles would display as their encoded values.
Added an additional check when removing unused CSS to avoid parsing print-only stylesheets.
Fixed an issue where the Script Manager was not giving the right feedback on save when a new line character was showing up in the AJAX response.
We also pushed out two updates for our Novashare WordPress plugin. Here are a few of the changes:
Added new option to control image pin button behavior with additional options to share the post image or show the image grid.
Added new image grid behavior option.
Added share button support for Threads network.
Updated our staging site license key exception list with additional formats.
Added lodash dependancy to Pinterest block editor script in the admin.
Fixed an issue with image pins where the first image in the post would be shared instead of the image that was clicked on.
Fixed an issue where field validation was preventing some Mastodon username formats from being entered.
Also, if you’re interested, I’m doing a 5-part webinar series with Kyle from The Admin Bar on Google Core Web Vitals. We’ll be touching on topics like TTFB, LCP, FCP, CLS, INP, etc., and sharing actionable steps on how to improve them. Feel free to sign up or mark your calendar.
Interesting things 🔎
Misc.
Need a swift solution to tweak and preview SVGs with code? Stefan Judis shared this amazing tool, which I’ve already been using. 👩💻
Scott Galloway describes the tough future facing Gen Z. I thought this was a thought-provoking listen.
A friendly reminder that starting June 4, 2024, the U.S. version of the Google Pay app will no longer be available for use.
Permira is taking Squarespace private in a $6.9 billion deal. Very interesting.
WordPress
WPShout unites with CodeinWP to create a powerful WordPress hub.
Envator is getting acquired by Shutterstock. ThemeForest was where I bought my first premium WordPress theme back in the day.
You can now try the new Divi 5 alpha demo. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Is there life after page builders? 🤔 Love this post from Anne-Mieke and how she is looking to the future, which is blocks and full-site editing (FSE).
With that being said, David Bushell also wrote about how he loathes what WordPress development has become and the state of FSE themes.
Kinsta has been releasing new features very fast: selective push for staging sites, jump and breadcrumb menus in MyKinsta, and bulk actions. Ironically, my favorite is the menu changes. It saves me a bunch of clicks every day.
Mindspun Responsive Blocks empowers users to create fully-responsive layouts using lightweight blocks. Definitely worth checking out if you’re diving into blocks and care about performance.
Performance
An interesting read from Salma Alam-Naylor, on why we don’t talk about minifying CSS anymore?
Variable fonts can be great. But if not set up properly, they are actually worse than regular fonts. Here’s a great rundown on how to use them properly. 🔠
Enjoyed this deep dive into Interaction to Next Paint (INP) from the Chrome for Developers team.
We’ve been making a lot of updates to our doc on INP. Using a real user monitoring (RUM) tool is by far the best way to track down where your INP is actually coming from. DebugBear or SpeedCurve are great!
DebugBear also published a good step-by-step guide on optimizing INP on Search Engine Journal.
The GTmetrix website got a complete overhaul. Honestly, it feels a lot faster than before when running tests and navigating reports. I like the change.
Kinsta ran benchmarks comparing the performance of Google’s C3D, C2, and N2 virtual machines. The C3D machines are crazy fast! ⚡
Matt Zeunert published an amazing post where they tested the page speed impact of 5,000 Chrome extensions. Many users don't realize how this can impact their browsing experience on a daily basis.
Five ways cookie consent managers hurt web performance and how to fix them.
Very cool! Google is building the first subsea cable connecting Africa to Australia. 🌊⚡
Marketing
Pirate Wires had an insightful interview with Jack Dorsey about the end of social media.
Twitter has finally redirected all URLs over to x.com.
Affinity Designer 2.5 released some new features and improvements! Windows ARM64 support, variable font support, a stroke width tool, and more.
Threads starts testing a TweetDeck-like feed of real-time posts.
SEO job listings reportedly down 37% year-over-year. This is most likely due to AI. 📉
Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same. A very interesting read from Thomas Germain.
Supposedly, some of Google’s search algorithim has leaked. Rand Fishkin also dove into the leak and has some thoughts. It's fascinating, nonetheless.
AI
Apple to unveil AI-enabled Safari browser alongside new operating systems.
Apple nears deal with OpenAI to put ChatGPT on iPhone.
Reddit and OpenAI have partnered up. They plan to start bringing Reddit content into ChatGPT and give Reddit moderators AI tools to handle moderation better.
Jan is an open-source alternative to ChatGPT that runs 100% offline on your computer.
Opera adopts Google Gemini to power its browser AI assistant and other tools.
They are adding AI to Chrome DevTools. Now this is something I can get behind! 👨🔧
SGE is here. Google just rolled out AI-powered overviews in the US. However, there appear to be a lot of issues with it so far. Should we start eating rocks?
As someone who does a lot of customer support, I thought this was hilarious. We’ve officially gone full circle. 😆
Bitcoin (not financial advice)
The US House of Representatives passes FIT21 as Democrats deride historic regulatory framework. This is great news for bitcoin and the United States. But it still might get vetoed.
The US House of Representatives also passed a Republican-led anti-CBDC bill along partisan lines.
Block is now DCA’ing into bitcoin every month. They shared their blueprint for corporate balance sheets. Michael Rihani also released a good thread on the topic.
Speaking of balance sheets, Semler Scientific announced their bitcoin treasury strategy.
This is an old post, but an excellent read on why the yuppie elite dismisses bitcoin.
We can finally put this nonsense to rest. A judge ruled that Craig Wright lied about creating bitcoin and faked evidence. 🪦
Theya is a new multisig self-custody wallet. They’ve been releasing a lot of cool features lately! Worth checking out.
A peer-reviewed study has been published on the idea of using an integrated landfill-gas-to-energy and bitcoin mining model.
If you want to really nerd out, this interview with Gloria Zhao, a bitcoin core maintainer, was fascinating! 🤓
If you're in the Scottsdale, AZ area, hit me up, and we can grab lunch! 🥗👋