Tidbits from Brian - Issue #35

I always end up back in customer support. 👨‍💻🤔

Aug 30, 2024

It’s funny how you envision what you want to do (for me, that is writing) and what you actually end up doing. Regardless of how hard I try, I always seem to end up back in a customer support type of role.

I’ve come to accept that I’m pretty good at troubleshooting WordPress problems, helping customers track down issues, etc. While it isn’t always the most fun aspect of my job and can be stressful at times, it seems this is where our business and users need me the most. I’m focusing more on embracing it. 💪

This newsletter has been a great outlet for me, as it’s one of the few times I get to jot down my thoughts consistently. It’s also an excellent way to keep up with everything going on and not get completely lost in the day-to-day business side of things. If you’re a subscriber, I appreciate you following along! 👏

Guy doing tech support — Image source: Grok-2

Updates ✍️

We pushed out a rather big update for our Perfmatters WordPress plugin. Here are a few of the changes:

We separated out built-in CSS selector exclusions by URL type for increased performance on single and front pages when using the Remove Unused CSS feature. On a large WooCommerce site, we saw a 32% decrease in overall CSS size. 🔥
We added a new advanced Lazy Load Elements feature (beta), which will allow for element chains in the DOM to be lazy-loaded until they enter the viewport. You can add selectors or add our custom class using your page builder or theme.

Optimized plugin logo and other SVG image files.
Fixed an issue where smaller size files were sometimes not being replaced with the minified version for increased performance. ⚡
Added fetchpriority high attribute automatically on critically preloaded image links to help decrease LCP.
Made adjustments to option management to prevent autoloading of certain options going forward where it is not needed.
Added support for delaying script modules.
Added additional jQuery sticky JavaScript file to Elementor quick exclusion.
Added new Delay JS quick exclusions for Fluent Forms and Fluent Forms Pro.
Integrated get_atts_array utility function into lazyload class to prevent redundancy.
Fixed an issue where the preload location label was overlapping the input field for certain languages.
Removed various manual preload types that are no longer supported by most major browsers.

We also pushed out a small update for our Novashare WordPress plugin. Here are a few of the changes.

X broke/deprecated some of its old Twitter code. 🐦 We've pushed out a quick fix where the old Twitter domain link was redirecting and duplicating the query string parameters passed through. If you're using X, we recommend updating.
Added an additional post object check to prevent a PHP warning in certain cases.
Updated our staging site license key exception list with additional formats for Rocket.net (*.onrocket.site) and Pantheon (*.pantheonsite.io). 🔑
Minor style adjustments to the plugin UI.

In case you missed them, check out our videos in the Vitality series with Kyle from The Admin Bar on Time to First Byte (TTFB), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Contentful Paint (FCP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). ⚡ Presentation slides are included in the video descriptions.

Interesting things 🔎

Misc.

Troy Hunt did an excellent breakdown of the 3 billion people National Public Data breach.
Adam has been releasing a ton of updates and improvements to the Screen Studio app on Mac. Up to 4 times faster exports. 🔥 Still my favorite video recording tool.
Samsung just showed a 600-mile solid-state EV battery, and it charges in only 9 minutes! I’m more excited about where EV technology might be in 5-10 years. Until then, I’ll be driving my paid-off gas-powered car into the ground.
I’m a big fan of Backblaze for offsite backup (not sync) of my computer. Through September 30, new customers can get 20% off using this discount code: B2S2024
Not a fan of Google Lens now showing up in your search bar in newer Chrome versions? I’ve disabled this.

WordPress

I’ve said this before, but Gravatar keeps adding nice improvements. I like the “Add to contacts” feature for WordPress networking events. Check out my profile.
There has been a new issue opened to track adding support for the new Font Library for classic themes. This would be great news! There are some doing workarounds already.
InstaWP has launched multisite support and a new data center location in Singapore.
I had fun chatting with folks on the WP-Tonic podcast. We discussed Kevin’s upcoming Etch product and Jamie’s new role as head of YouTube at WordPress (Jamie chimed in).

Performance

I published a doc with some tips on how to speed up your WordPress admin dashboard (back-end and editor). ⚡ Not everything is about the front-end.
The newest version of GeneratePress now has a local font library feature! This is an amazing update in terms of performance.
DebugBear put out an excellent post on debunking five myths about Interaction to Next Paint (INP). They also published a video.
Kinsta rolled out the new C3D machines in Frankfurt, Germany, and Sydney, Australia. Typical response time improvements of between 20-50%!
The new performance panel updates coming in Chrome DevTools are some of the best I’ve seen in a long time! Definitely worth taking some time to try them out. You can enable them under Experiments. Here is a good overview.
SolidWP (StellarWP) has launched a new free standalone cache plugin called Solid Performance. Looks very promising!
The Super Page Cache for Cloudflare plugin has rebranded to Super Page Cache, removing the Cloudflare dependency if you don’t want it. It now also works standalone as a cache plugin.
Ever wonder why your site’s HTML doc size is so big? This HTML analyzer tool comes in really handy! Definitely one to add to your toolbench.
AVIF is now a supported file type in Google Search.

Marketing

X has rolled out a new feature where you can sort replies on any post by most relevant, recent, or liked. I like this improvement!
Google Sheets adds a one-click way to easily create tables. I use Sheets a lot, and will be taking advantage of this.
Katie Keith and Zack Katz talk to WordPress and marketing expert Patrick Rauland about how to diagnose and tackle marketing problems.
The August core update from Google is shaking things up in SERPs. I’ve seen folks both recovering and losing a lot of traffic.
The FTC is cracking down harder on fake reviews and testimonials. This is a good thing!
Instagram is adding a song on profile feature. I don’t use Instagram much, but it was fun to add a clip of my favorite song. Definitely having Myspace flashbacks.
Google may now use your OG title for title links in search engine results.
X is testing a video conferencing tool. As someone who uses X quite a bit, I’m all for alternatives to Zoom, Google Meet, etc.

AI

I’ve been using Grok-2 a lot lately. I stopped using Bard, Copilot, and ChatGPT. It’s excellent for what I use it for, along with image generation. In fact, the image at the top of this newsletter was created using Grok. However, a premium account is required.
The improvement in AI-generated videos over the past 15-16 months is remarkable. Check out this comparison, just one year apart.
After seeing massive improvements in AI, you then have an entire parking lot of Waymo cars honking at each other at 4 am. So not everything is smooth sailing.
I thought this was an interesting thread. Have you ever had a great experience with an AI chatbot? 🤔 I still haven’t. “Give me human.”