User blog comment:Kirkburn/Technical Update: August 10, 2016/@comment-24014422-20160813151624/@comment-26402117-20160813182841

The dev activity is variable in terms of announceable things. But dev work is always continuous so its not indicative of actual work. This is more anecdotal but I usually code on my own computer before rolling out code.

An upgrade to the search engine is kinda more of an overhaul than an update, as it involves core changes/additions to the search algorithm.

The usertags thing is a good suggestion.