When AI first began to take off, I was reluctant to start using it. I think part of it was me being stuck in my old ways (thinking Iām smarter than AI š¤¦āāļø), and another was being a content creator and realizing what this meant for the future. But we all have to adapt.
Iāve been using Google AI Mode a lot over the past couple of months. Itās now a normal part of my daily work routine. So much so that I made Google AI mode my default search engine. I can open a new tab and query AI directly from the address bar. Itās crazy how fast things can change.
For example, I needed to find the endpoint a plugin was using for the REST API. The old way of doing this involved searching support docs, looking through Stack Overflow posts, or digging directly into the pluginās code. But AI gave me the endpoint in less than 5 seconds.
I could probably give 100+ examples where Iām now working faster due to AI. Whether itās rewriting a PHP filter or getting the answers I need without having to bounce around between different resources.
With that being said, Iāve also seen clients recently just blindly trusting AI. And sometimes this has caused problems. I shared this in my last newsletter, but Iām really glad I learned how to code before AI became a thing. Because you need to know when AI gives you something wrong, otherwise, it can send you down the wrong path and actually waste time.
The funny thing is, when you correct AI, it will then agree with you, apologize, and go on a lengthy explanation of why your way is now better. Why didnāt it just give me the correct answer to begin with? š¤ Thatās probably my biggest annoyance with it at the moment.
AI is definitely not perfect, but itās improving day by day.
Updates āļø
We pushed out a couple of updates for our Perfmatters WordPress plugin. Here are a few of the changes:
Added a fetchpriority high attribute on critically preloaded image tags to match the preload link attribute. This resolves a PSI warning in certain instances. ā”
Added new buffer function to check the viewport meta tag position and adjust it if needed when critical image preloads are being used. This drastically improves preload compatibility across the board with WordPress themes and page builders on mobile. š±
Added logic to populate the critical image preload href attribute with the fallback image src if the preload is for a responsive image srcset.
Added built-in stylesheet exclusion for the GeneratePress offside menu.
Updated delay JS quick exclusion for Elementor to include e-gallery.
Fixed a PHP warning that could sometimes happen when calculating the root directory path in the utilities class. š
Fixed a trailing slash validation warning coming from critical image preload tags.
Disabled the Remove Comment URLs toggle when Kadence is active due to an incompatibility.
We appreciate all the feedback from those of you who reported issues.
Stay tuned for an exciting new feature coming to Perfmatters in late October/November that weāve been working on all summer! š
We also need your help. If youāve enjoyed using our Perfmatters or Novashare plugins, we would greatly appreciate a vote in the 2025 Monsterās Award.
Vote for Perfmatters š³ļø
Vote for Novashare š³ļø
Interesting things š
Misc.
Judge rules that Google can keep Chrome, but must share search data with qualified competitors.
The Browser Company, maker of Arc and Dia, is being acquired by Atlassian.
The new Google Finance dashboard (in beta) is beautiful! š¦
macOS Tahoe 26 and iOS 26 are out! I made the move already and am liking most of the changes. The Apple Music app finally feels more native to the OS. Although Liquid Glass is really throwing my eyes for a loop. Some icons (even those updated) look blurry to me. Maybe Iām just old. š
Speaking of Apple, I had been saving money in my account for the last few years, just waiting for the new AirPods Pro 3 to come out. I can confirm they are amazing!
The active noise cancellation (ANC) improvements are noticeable compared to the Pro 2 models. Iām blown away by this, as I thought ANC was already good before.
My Pro 2 would only get around 5 hours of battery life. Iām easily squeezing out 8 hours of battery life with the Pro 3. And thatās with ANC enabled. š
Ookla launches Wi-Fi Speedtest Certified program to help prove network quality. It would be awesome to see if a hotel has a certain speed of internet before booking. Iām all for this and hope companies adopt it.
WordPress
Subdomain delegation with NS records is now available in Kinsta DNS.
InstaWP has added two new suffix options for domains (*.instawp.co and *.instawp.link).
GenerateBlocks Pro 2.4 is expanding its conditional display features to work with any block (not just those from GenerateBlocks). This will be a great improvement.
Whatās coming in WordPress 6.9? Jamie did an awesome overview! And itās very short, which I prefer.
WordPress is finally going to get a native according block.
In ACFās annual 2025 survey, they discovered that 50% of respondents were using a hybrid WordPress theme.
Marketing
I enjoyed this article from Emily on āyou donāt need social media, social media needs you.ā A lot of good points. Although I wonāt be closing my X account anytime soon. š
Google Search rank and position tracking is a mess right now after they removed the ability to see 100 search results per page. What does it mean for your website?
How to select your preferred sources in Top Stories in Search.
The Signal app has introduced secure backups.
X is now offering me end-to-end encrypted chat ā you probably shouldnāt trust it yet.
Google says to go with a traditional TLD even if you need a hyphen in the domain name.
Performance
Iām always on the lookout for better cookie solutions. Iāve published a new doc with some WordPress cookie plugins aimed at performance, including their base CSS/JS sizes. šŖ
DebugHawk is now live! Itās like Query Monitor and an APM tool combined to monitor both front and backend performance, without all the crazy complexity. I played around with it in early access and love the direction itās headed. Also check out whatās planned for 2026.
A reminder that GTmetrix is removing its default Canada location on October 15th, 2025. A Seattle location will be the new default.
Cloudflare is going to make nearly every feature they offer available to any customer who wants to buy it, regardless of whether they are an enterprise account. This is awesome!
Cloudflare just got faster and more secure. According to their tests, websites are responding 10 ms faster at the median, a 25% performance boost.
Rocket.net hosting has launched a data center location in Canada. šØš¦
In Chrome 140, you can now click Debug with AI under Performance > Insights in DevTools for things like āImprove Image Deliveryā and āLegacy JS.ā It's great that they continue to improve this!
AI
RIP to the em dash ā you were my favorite punctuation mark until AI ruined you.
You can now branch conversations in ChatGPT.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 was just released, and they claim it is the best coding model in the world.
AI recruiter Alex raises $17M to automate initial job interviews. Iām not sure about this one. š«
If you're in the Scottsdale, AZ area, hit me up, and we can grab lunch! š„š