[NEW CONTENT LISTING] WordPress 5.5.1 maintenance release fixes millions of broken websites, potential new Apple search engine, Wish files to IPO, Facebook bans political ads ahead of election and more…

Recently, WordPress published new information detailing why WordPress 5.5 caused complications for millions of websites. WordPress describes the situation: “In WordPress 5.5 the global JavaScript objects listed below were removed without being deprecated. WordPress 5.5.1 adds a backfill for these globals so they no longer cause JavaScript errors.” Essentially, 5.5 was crashing sites thanks to an older plugin that relied on jQuery Migrate Library to function. The plugin stopped working after WordPress removed that library. WordPress released version 5.5.1 on September 1st to address the issue and help software developers fix both their plugins and themes.

Apple dropping hints about launching a search engine to compete with Google

For years, Google has been the default search engine on Safari for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, but some new details and updates suggest that Apple may be looking to launch their own search engine. For example, a Coywolf report suggests that Apple is heavily investing in search positions due to an increase in job postings for search engineers. In addition to an increase in search engineer positions, Apple has updated its Applebot web crawler page. Apparently, the Applebot support updates mirror details that Google provides to webmasters and SEOs. So far, no news has been released surrounding development of a search engine, but Apple has enough to gain from a search engine, including a weakening of Google’s monopoly and continued control of the Apple ecosystem.

Wish quietly files to go public

Wish, the discounted e-commerce marketplace, has submitted a draft registration to the SEC for a public stock offering. Wish, founded in 2010, offers over 70 million users access to deeply-discounted items. From home goods to apparel and electronics, Wish competes directly with industry giants Amazon and Walmart in offerings, yet Wish continues to set itself apart with its accessibility to users of every socio-economic status (e.g., no membership fees compared to Amazon’s $119 Prime subscription). Wish’s filing joins others like Asana and Snowflake as the tech IPO market expands despite widespread economic uncertainty.

Facebook will ban political ads the week before presidential election

Starting the week before the presidential election on Nov. 3, Facebook will ban political ads and will delete any posts that claim voters will contract COVID-19 if they go to the polls to vote. The action will only ban political ads submitted in the week before the election but will allow any ads submitted before October 27. Previously, Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has been in support of political ads regardless of falsified information. “I believe our democracy is strong enough to withstand this challenge and deliver a free and fair election — even if it takes time for every vote to be counted,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. This action comes after other social media companies like Twitter and Pinterest have banned political ads on their sites.

SaaS Mag sat down with G2‘s Godard Abel to discuss building a business model founded on trust. Abel is an entrepreneur with a long track record of starting and scaling up successful companies. The co-founder of BigMachines and SteelBrick — both of which had multimillion-dollar exits — has been growing his latest venture, G2, into a multinational company with offices in Singapore, India, London, and the U.S., with more to come.

For sale is a growing content business in the hobby and recreational activities niche with over 2.1M page views over the LTM.
Some key highlights:

• Yearly revenue of $84,000
• Vast content library of c.485 in-depth articles resulting in more than 100,000 visitors per month
• High net margins of c.88% allowing a new owner to invest in growth
• Ranks for 46,900 keywords and over 162,000 backlinks

Request a prospectus from the link above to learn more.