[wp-hackers] WordPress.Org plugins directory search suggestion

[David Anderson]

Hi,

I didn't want to post this to the wordpress.org plugins email address, 
as I realise that's busy enough for the team there and didn't want to 
force them to read it. But, if anyone has time to here (and a public 
answer that's Googleable might not hurt)...

The wordpress.org plugins directory always returns any plugin whose slug 
you enter exactly as the #1 result. That's hard-wired. That seems 
reasonable - if someone searches directly for something, then that 
should come first.

However, that breaks down badly when slugs are very generic terms - 
especially single words.

e.g.:

* "Backup". The result is unmaintained for 3 years, tested up to WP 3.4, 
and is only for Google Drive, using a Google API that doesn't exist any 
more - so, useless.

* "Contact" - brings up a plugin last modified > a year ago, tested up 
to WP 4.0.

* "Pinterest" - brings up a plugin last updated  4 years ago, tested up 
to WP 3.3. (I realise that a new submission of this sort would fail the 
new trademark policy).

It seems to me that at a minimum, the "always return a plugin whose slug 
exactly matches" should not apply on single-word searches. Otherwise, 
even with the new trademark policy preventing some abuses, users are 
stuck with rubbish/obsolete search results on some common terms for all 
eternity.

David

-- 
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