WordPress 5.0 - The Next Big Thing

WordPress is an open source content management system, which powers almost 30% of the entire internet. When looking at its place in the global CMS marketshare, that statistic doubles. It’s safe to say that major releases and updates to WordPress could be seen as colossal as a new Apple product, or Microsoft operating system, which is why there has been so much talk about WordPress 5.0.

Currently, WordPress publishing revolves around the TinyMCE editor, which has the ability to switch between two tabs: a visual editor, and a text editor. While these options have been a standard of WordPress for several years, many other platforms have made advances in user experience, leaving the TinyMCE editor to somewhat stagnate. This has led the many contributors at WordPress to develop an alternative, which they have lovingly named "Gutenberg".

With the advent of Gutenberg, this old way of creating content is replaced by an entirely revamped editor, with a much more streamlined interface. Gutenberg offers unprecedented native content control for editors.

The Gutenberg Editor is designed intuitively to publish content with greater ease.

Content is populated by the use of "blocks", which allow for streamlined editing of posts and pages, with helpful UI hints, commands, and prompts. Plus, for those who know code, or wish to customize certain blocks with more precision, Gutenberg also offers the option to edit the code for an individual block itself. It’s even possible to create custom blocks that can be repurposed across multiple pages.

Example of creating content from the user friendly block interface.

One of the more increasingly contentious points of Gutenberg, is that WordPress plugins may have some compatibility issues upon launch of WordPress 5.0. Some developers have expressed their concerns over this, although some have looked at the situation though an opportunistic lens. Popular plugins like Yoast, Woocommerce, and Gravity Forms, have all started development on their own Block integration, so that they will be fully prepared upon WordPress 5.0's release.

Embedding content from Twitter, or other platforms, is much more streamlined.

WordPress 5.0 doesn’t have a definitive scheduled release as of this post date, but things are trending towards a late Summer or Fall 2018 release. At The Squad, we look forward to seeing what the future holds for the WordPress platform, and how we can best utilize this new functionality to enhance our client’s web experiences.

WordPress 5.0 is just one of many changes that have taken place in the online world of code, search engines, and lead generation. If you're concerned that your website doesn't cut it by today's standards, then it might be time for a website refresh. Let's talk!