WordPress 6.1, “Misha”, was released on November 1. The new version features more than 120 enhancements and fixes over 240 bugs. 

Performance was a focus in this release, including increased efficiencies within WP_Query and the REST API. Query caching is said to provide a significant speed boost. WordPress core contributor Jonny Harris has tweeted test results to back up the claim.

Also of note are multiple accessibility enhancements, a myriad of improvements to the block editor, the ability to use block-based template parts within “Classic” themes, the introduction of the Twenty Twenty-Three default theme, and a whole lot more.

Check out the WordPress 6.1 Field Guide for a full rundown of what’s new. And if you’re interested in who contributed to the release, Jean-Baptiste Audras has put together some detailed contribution statistics.

Links You Shouldn’t Miss

The 2022 Web Almanac reports that 72% of WordPress-powered mobile pages may be overusing native lazy loading on images, resulting in a negative impact on performance. Sarah Gooding at WP Tavern offers more details and some possible reasons for this surprising number. 

Gutenberg project lead Matías Ventura recently highlighted some improvements to the block editor’s writing experience. Meanwhile, a blog post at Make WordPress Core has further details and demos to check out.

eCommerce platform (and WooCommerce rival) Shopify saw rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many of the online stores opened during that time didn’t last.

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From the Grab Bag

Now it’s time to take a look at some other interesting topics shared by our contributors.

• Eric Karkovack and Dan Knauss discussed ideas for improving the WordPress user experience on the Post Status Excerpt.
• The Bertha AI Writing Assistant has introduced the ability to generate images based on artificial intelligence (AI) from within WordPress.
• Elon Musk’s controversial purchase of Twitter has been finalized. And while some people have vowed to leave the platform, Sarah Gooding reports that many WordPress community members are planning to stick around.
• The new Missing Menu Items plugin adds hard-to-find block and site editor links to the WordPress Appearance menu. WP Tavern recently took a look at what it does.
• Matt Mullenweg shared thoughts on why Tumblr’s previous policy on adult content no longer works on the modern web.

 Thanks to all of the members who shared these links today: 

• Andrew Palmer
• Birgit Pauli-Haack
• Eric Karkovack

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