WEBVTT NOTE This file was generated by Descript 00:00:03.980 --> 00:00:08.020 Matt Mullenweg is returning from his three month sabbatical, dubbed sabbatical, 00:00:08.230 --> 00:00:10.650 which kicked off February 1st, 2024. 00:00:10.890 --> 00:00:14.630 He handed the CEO reins back to Tony Schneider and placed Daniel 00:00:14.630 --> 00:00:17.060 Bakuber in charge of WordPress. 00:00:17.070 --> 00:00:18.500 com in his absence. 00:00:19.110 --> 00:00:22.120 I thought we'd see the whole organization coast while the open 00:00:22.120 --> 00:00:25.660 source benevolent dictator dug his toes into the sand, but Automatic 00:00:25.680 --> 00:00:28.380 and WordPress stayed as busy as ever. 00:00:28.840 --> 00:00:32.550 I don't know how much Mullenweg was involved with all of these milestones. 00:00:32.760 --> 00:00:36.170 Something tells me he didn't stay as disconnected as he had hoped. 00:00:36.670 --> 00:00:40.460 Let's take a look at some of the big moves that happened with WordPress, Automatic, 00:00:40.460 --> 00:00:42.810 and the community while Matt was away. 00:00:42.810 --> 00:00:45.790 Number one, the WP Tavern Hunger Games. 00:00:45.990 --> 00:00:49.120 One of the first major activities to kick off was the search for 00:00:49.120 --> 00:00:53.370 two new full time writers to breathe life back into WP Tavern. 00:00:53.760 --> 00:00:58.650 It was a Hunger Games esque approach where seven or eight writers duked it out to be 00:00:58.650 --> 00:01:00.460 crowned winner number one and number two. 00:01:00.965 --> 00:01:03.865 Author Brian Cordes was the last contestant to publish 00:01:03.865 --> 00:01:06.285 a post on March 14th, 2024. 00:01:06.665 --> 00:01:10.785 There hasn't been any clear announcement on who earned the position or what happens 00:01:10.785 --> 00:01:14.455 next, and most authors I've spoken to are still wondering what's next for 00:01:14.455 --> 00:01:16.485 their writing careers at the Tavern. 00:01:17.650 --> 00:01:18.860 Number two, Woo. 00:01:18.860 --> 00:01:21.640 com is back to WooCommerce. 00:01:21.650 --> 00:01:22.040 com. 00:01:22.320 --> 00:01:26.120 Something I hadn't had on my bingo cards was the short lived Woo. 00:01:26.380 --> 00:01:29.560 com domain defaulting back to the original WooCommerce. 00:01:29.560 --> 00:01:30.250 com domain. 00:01:30.700 --> 00:01:33.219 Quote from WooCommerce, moving to Woo. 00:01:33.220 --> 00:01:36.930 com created challenges for our users to find WooCommerce in Google 00:01:36.930 --> 00:01:40.310 searches, which were made worse following the Google's March update. 00:01:40.730 --> 00:01:44.660 To address those challenges, we assembled a group of SEO experts and consultants 00:01:44.660 --> 00:01:48.640 to evaluate the best way to build on the strength of WooCommerce brand, 00:01:48.650 --> 00:01:51.440 said Kevin Bates wrote in that update. 00:01:52.350 --> 00:01:56.480 Number three, the old WP admin dashboard is new for wordpress. 00:01:56.480 --> 00:01:56.880 com. 00:01:57.310 --> 00:01:59.620 In another what's old is new again. 00:01:59.910 --> 00:02:00.540 WordPress. 00:02:00.540 --> 00:02:06.030 com is giving users the ability to roll back to a traditional WP admin interface. 00:02:06.510 --> 00:02:11.230 It seems there's no future for the once innovative Calypso project, citing 00:02:11.230 --> 00:02:12.710 that developers were looking for. 00:02:12.995 --> 00:02:16.295 A more familiar interface when working on WordPress. 00:02:16.295 --> 00:02:17.045 com sites. 00:02:17.565 --> 00:02:21.605 This might be a sign that more WordPress consultants are starting to recommend. 00:02:21.875 --> 00:02:23.365 com more to their customers. 00:02:23.655 --> 00:02:26.835 Now that the platform has been supporting user installed plugins 00:02:27.225 --> 00:02:30.385 on the 30 a month and up plan. 00:02:31.595 --> 00:02:36.785 Number four, automatic spends an additional 125 million on messaging 00:02:36.785 --> 00:02:38.365 with the beeper acquisition. 00:02:39.090 --> 00:02:42.600 Automatic is pouring money into messaging with its latest acquisition 00:02:42.600 --> 00:02:47.220 of Beeper, which I'm assuming Mullenweg was quite active on during sabbatical. 00:02:47.770 --> 00:02:51.160 I like the idea of Automatic building up a strong solution for messaging. 00:02:51.350 --> 00:02:54.580 In a world where SEO is getting squeezed and social media feeds 00:02:54.590 --> 00:02:58.920 being curated by ad driven algos, we need more direct channels with our 00:02:58.920 --> 00:03:02.520 readers, subscribers, and customers, and I think that's direct messaging. 00:03:02.780 --> 00:03:06.230 It could be an exciting new frontier with automatic leading 00:03:06.230 --> 00:03:08.040 the charge, and I'm here for it. 00:03:09.500 --> 00:03:11.230 Number five, WordPress. 00:03:11.240 --> 00:03:12.920 com launches studio app. 00:03:13.300 --> 00:03:16.320 The new studio app allows users to run WordPress installs 00:03:16.340 --> 00:03:17.680 locally on their computer. 00:03:17.860 --> 00:03:21.330 This is a great way to learn WordPress and develop WordPress sites for free. 00:03:21.700 --> 00:03:25.770 It's powered by the same technology that runs the official WordPress playground and 00:03:25.770 --> 00:03:30.070 gives users the ability to publish their local websites to temporary WordPress. 00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:31.740 com accounts to share with the world. 00:03:32.295 --> 00:03:36.105 Other hosting platforms like WP Engine and Kinsta offer local development 00:03:36.105 --> 00:03:39.465 environments, making this a natural fit for Automattic to offer. 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:42.770 Number six, Big Sky, WordPress. 00:03:42.770 --> 00:03:46.560 com starts a waiting list for AI designed websites. 00:03:46.760 --> 00:03:47.380 WordPress. 00:03:47.390 --> 00:03:52.030 com decided to throw their hat into the AI web design ring by opening up a beta 00:03:52.340 --> 00:03:54.650 sign up for their latest project, Big Sky. 00:03:55.200 --> 00:03:58.850 I've signed up to trial products, to the trial product, but I also signed 00:03:58.860 --> 00:04:02.460 up for access to studio before it was released and didn't hear anything. 00:04:02.480 --> 00:04:04.290 So fingers crossed with this one. 00:04:04.690 --> 00:04:08.250 If anyone at Automatic is reading this, I have found 100 percent AI 00:04:08.280 --> 00:04:09.970 website builders underwhelming. 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:13.380 It's basically machine learning with blocks and patterns that are 00:04:13.410 --> 00:04:16.450 tagged with keywords that just get mashed together based on the prompt. 00:04:16.920 --> 00:04:20.060 I prefer starting with a collection of professionally designed themes 00:04:20.060 --> 00:04:23.540 and patterns, but I'm happy to see if they can change my mind. 00:04:24.515 --> 00:04:25.325 And that's not all. 00:04:25.335 --> 00:04:29.745 The above mark, the above marks six of the biggest moves I think happened 00:04:30.085 --> 00:04:32.975 around the WordPress space while Mullenweg enjoyed some time off. 00:04:33.005 --> 00:04:34.485 But again, that's not all. 00:04:34.485 --> 00:04:37.845 Here's a quick list of other notable events that happened 00:04:38.015 --> 00:04:39.345 over the last three months. 00:04:39.675 --> 00:04:40.800 WordPress 6. 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:41.515 5 launched. 00:04:41.795 --> 00:04:45.065 The community led Make Marketing team was shut down in favor 00:04:45.065 --> 00:04:46.975 of a new MediaCore experiment. 00:04:47.405 --> 00:04:48.055 WordPress. 00:04:48.055 --> 00:04:50.035 com now supports GitHub integration. 00:04:50.035 --> 00:04:50.085 WordPress. 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:50.730 WordPress. 00:04:50.730 --> 00:04:54.170 com launched a new public pattern directory and WooCommerce launched 00:04:54.180 --> 00:04:55.890 a new update manager plugin. 00:04:56.410 --> 00:04:58.790 Was there anything else on your list that didn't make it here? 00:04:59.060 --> 00:05:03.060 Let me know on Twitter by sending me a message at the WP minute 00:05:03.080 --> 00:05:05.156 or at Matt Medeiros, if you want to reach me personally.