Stay tuned until the conclusion for two adorable blondes at a baseball game.
This edition covers:
- We discuss voice search… and the increasing necessity to optimize for it.
- Sometimes a horse is merely a horse, and not a Trojan horse hidden in the WP code after all.
- Can residing next to a bitcoin mine really harm your health? It turns out, yes.
Fresh Updates: What’s Happening?
WordPress Reveals AI Partnership to a Confusingly Tepid Reaction
What’s more troubling?
Revealing that you’re handing over your customer’s data to some AI gadget and everyone freaking out and getting angry?
Or…
Revealing that you’re handing over your customer’s data to some AI gadget and completely nobody cares?
On July 30th, WordPress disclosed their partnership with Perplexity, an Ask Jeeves-like AI that still suffers from delusions and confidently generates inaccuracies just like any AI, but claims to be more precise by citing footnotes and sources.
The lukewarm reception to the official WordPress announcement is somewhat bizarre. Only 5 comments in a week? Ouch.
WordPress asserts that this collaboration will benefit WordPress users thanks to a revenue sharing model. Under the “Publisher’s Program,” Perplexity will provide a payment for a share of ad revenue whenever your content is highlighted in response to user inquiries.
The precise terms of the contract haven’t been disclosed, but Perplexity’s Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko states that the revenue share is a “double-digit percentage.”
However, if you remain a tad skeptical, we understand. Wired has criticized Perplexity for misleading, breaching the Robots Exclusion Protocol, and scraping websites unauthorized.
To sum it up, we’re baffled as to why this wide-eyed partnership announcement from Automattic hasn’t been greeted with more doubt.
P.S. If you wish to opt out of using your content for AI training, here’s how. (Not sure it matters though, after glancing at that Wired article…)
Divi Starts Dashboard: Not a Moment Too Soon
Wait a second… Move aside AI, because everything retro is trending again.
It’s evolution, not revolution, that’s the current trend. Thus, we were thrilled to observe Divi joining the dashboard scene with Divi Dash! Repeat that! Now, say it 5 times quickly!
To be fair, Divi Dash as a WordPress Site Manager appears pretty polished and user-friendly. From the video overview, it looks packed with interesting features and more on the way.
And of course, as we may have insinuated, it surely benefits from the decade-long R&D that must have been occurring since, well, let’s say, ManageWP started its journey. Or possibly, um, us.
Regardless, your editorial team is excited to delve into the features of the new Divi Dash. If you’ve been tinkering with it, we’d love to hear your opinions. Cheers to Elegant Themes and Divi Dash aspirations!
There Was Temporary Panic When WP 6.6.1 Was Labeled for Trojan Malware
As WordPress 6.6.1 was released last week, several user reports emerged, alleging that the newest version triggered trojan alerts.
User @ahnafr11 noted in the WordPress support forums that they received a distressing “Virus Detected” warning when downloading the latest update from the official site, accompanied by a notice stating “this program is hazardous and carries out commands from an intruder.”
Umm… yikes!
That’s enough to make anyone spit out their coffee, but certain aspects led users to wonder whether this warning was legitimate or just a false positive.
Primarily, WordPress 6.6.1 had been available for 4 days and had not raised any alarms until Windows Defender updated.
To keep it brief, the issue proved to be an error with Windows Defender mistakenly categorizing an XML namespace as an unsafe URL. Oopsies..
To get the whole story on this situation, check out this Search Engine Journal explanation. For now, the official guidance from WordPress admin is simply to disregard the false alarm until Microsoft rectifies it.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
We’ve Added 12 New Hosting Locations 
If you didn’t catch it, we’ve expanded to 12 new hosting locations globally, providing you with more options to choose a server closer to your website traffic.
You can view the new locations here.
If you wish to transition to a new location, you’ll find a comprehensive guide here.
We received some feedback regarding the absence of new Canadian locations. Apologies to our Canadian users, we’ll include you in the next update!
Remember, one day Canadians will dominate the world, and then we’ll all be in trouble.
Mind-Blowing Statistics
- Most WordPress downloads occur on Wednesdays; Fridays see the least activity. (Source)
- The average price of a premium pre-made WordPress theme is $59. (Source)
- WordPress users publish about 70 million new posts every month. (Source)
- Yesterday alone, there were 119 thousand blog posts created on Gutenberg. (Source)
- WordPress 6.6 has been downloaded 46,900,460 times and still counting. (Source)
Dive Deep: Speak That to My Interface!
Breaking News: People are conversing with their devices.
“Alexa, share something I don’t know!”
Right? We’ve been witnessing the surge of voice search for nearly a decade already. In 2022, the Smart Audio Report indicated that 62% of Americans aged 18 and older used a voice assistant on their devices, and 57% of them performed voice searches daily.
Yet voice search has skyrocketed even more in recent years, primarily due to advancements in voice recognition technology.
The team at Global Market Insights predicts that global smart speaker sales will exceed $30 billion this year, and if the Statista forecast reported by SemRush holds true, voice search is absolutely a topic of significance in 2024:
How to Make Your WordPress Site Optimized for Voice Search
So how can you ensure your site is the one that gets featured by the ever-helpful Siri, Alexa, and Google? Is there a way for WP to thrive alongside the growing trend of voice search?
Aim for the Featured Snippet
According to Backlinko, 40.7% of voice search answers are sourced from a featured snippet box. Structure your content with clear headings, brief paragraphs, bullet points, and tables to make it snippet-friendly.
Employ Conversational Language
In essence, write as you talk! Phrase things in a natural manner, just like your website visitors will when they conduct their searches.
Enhance Your Local SEO
75% of smart speaker owners utilize voice search weekly to find local businesses. For physical shops, this means updating your Google My Business, Apple Maps, Bing Places, and any other local directories.
Implement Structured Data
Utilize schema.org markup to provide semantic context about your content’s entities, relationships, and actions, making your website more understandable for search engines. Yoast has a comprehensive ultimate guide for applying this on your WordPress site.
Loading Speed is Crucial
Voice search results load 52% quicker than typical search results. Do everything in your power to ensure your site loads at lightning speed!
P.S. We have a guide for that!
Must-Read Blogs & Resources
If, unlike Perplexity, you prefer to accurately cite your ethically referenced sources, here are some WordPress plugins to elegantly organize your footnotes.
COFFEE IS FOR CLOSERS, ONLY! Nah, just kidding. Enjoy your coffee, but do check out this step-by-step sales workflow from Kyle Van Deusen that will help you Always Be Closing when providing your website services.
Karol Krol reviews Learn WordPress’s recent “Learning Pathways” transformation. TLDR: Navigation has significantly improved, and Karol is impressed.
On the Shop Talk Show, Dave Rupert and Chris Coyier deliver a reassuring and motivating response to the question, “Do you think “AI-free” blogs will become rare in the future?”
If you noticed WP 6.6 had some glitches but haven’t updated to 6.6.1, here’s why you should.
“I, for one, welcome our Corporate Overlords…” Just kidding, can you imagine our world like that? Check out Doc Pop’s insights on the Fediverse and the safeguarding of content creators from big tech control.
Distractions for Your Coffee Break
The odd incident where a bitcoin mine resulted in severe health issues in a small Texan town.
Individuals have been using videos of GitLab’s internal Zoom meetings to appear busy.
This nostalgia-driven search engine curates pages from the days of the classic web.
“We do not, in fact, control the entire internet.” – A relatable story from Clients From Hell.
Meet the 11-year-old girl who introduced coding to the world in 1997.
Discover what happens when a real comedian tests AI-generated jokes on stage.
And of course, as promised, two undeniably cute blondes at a baseball game.
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