Business Roundup Week Ending August 2

WordPress 6.6.1 Flagged as Malware

Some WordPress users began to panic when Windows Defender flagged the WordPress 6.6.1 zip file as containing Trojan:Win32/Phish!MSR.
Some even reported that their host locked down their sites due to the malware flag.
The alert was primarily triggered by a specific string of code in \wp-includes\css\dist\block-library\style.min.css because Defender determined it contained a URL reference flagged as a Trojan.
The warning was a false positive caused by an insecure URL (beginning with http) in the CSS file: http://www.w3.org/2000/svg
This reference is a common inclusion at the beginning of svg files (in this case an inline SVG), and there was no real security issue in the update.
Here’s a valuable learning experience about XML namespaces and SVGs within coding: simply changing http to https would have solved the issue.
SearchEngineJournal breaks down the false alert in their recent article.

Google’s URL shortener service (goo.gl) will stop working completely on August 25, 2025.
This shutdown will affect billions of redirected URLs, leading them to serve a 404 not found error.
Google initially halted the creation of new redirects with this service in March 2019, but continued to support the redirects.
Beginning August 23, 2024, goo.gl links will start showing an interstitial page before navigating to target URLs that will notify users that the link will no longer be supported after August 25, 2025.
Third-party link tracking tools have identified billions of goo.gl links that will be impacted by this change.
Here’s another Google service being sunsetted. Does this make you think twice about building any business-critical process there?
See how it may affect you in this post on SearchEngineLand.

ChatGPT’s new Voice Mode can sing, speak multiple languages with various accents, and provide correct pronunciations.
With Meta’s new AI Studio, you can create AI characters for Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. It’s as simple as starting an “AI Chat” on Instagram. Full details here.
The Writer Framework lets you create Python apps in a drag and drop interface.
Google is bringing Gemini-power to the Chrome desktop browser. New features will include Lens for desktop, Tab Compare for shopping assistance, and AI integration for search history.
Developers have gotten a first look at Apple Intelligence in the iOS 18 preview where AI is sprinkled throughout from email summaries in Apple Mail to converting voice notes to a to do list.
With Anthropic’s Claude you can create personalized bots that can perform personalized tasks. Called “tool use,” the feature will allow Claude to interact with external APIs of your choosing. Interesting possibilities here.
AI Wars – Reddit is currently blocking all AI crawlers other than Google.

WordPress 6.6 caused all text links to be underlined for some users. See the support thread here. It’s not the first time this has happened. Back in December 2022, it happened in WordPress 6.1, too.
Is it really safe to just hit the update button? Specky Boy explains how to stay safe during an update process.
Rabbit Hole Alert: Check out this collection of Bad and Ugly Websites in the WebDesignMuseum.