As there has been no action on this.
To Reproduce:
Search plugins for “sort order” by popularity:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=sort+order&sort=popular
Note in these results, the total downloads are not sorted by popularity as requested.
(Here are results in brief)
WooCommerce – excelling eCommerce
Version: 2.0.8
Updated: 2013-4-18
Downloads: 760,977
NextGEN Gallery
Version: 1.9.12
Updated: 2013-2-15
Downloads: 7,129,091
Social Media Widget
Version: 4.0.2
Updated: 2013-4-11
Downloads: 1,019,041
Ultimate TinyMCE
Version: 4.4
Updated: 2013-4-9
Downloads: 1,359,350
“Popularity” is not the same thing as “total downloads”. Popularity is based on downloads over a recent time period. Total downloads is the total from all time.
Additionally, “relevance” is based on several factors, of which the download count is only a small part.
“Highest Rated” is currently under reconstruction since the Reviews system went into place, changing how the ratings work behind the scenes.
“Newest” is just what it says, but it’s not the same as “most recently updated”. It’s the newest in the directory.
Except for the “highest rated” (which still needs more work), the results are sorting correctly. Just maybe not the way you’re expecting them to. Also, the order will change from day to day as the counts and everything else changes. It’s not meant to be a fixed order, nor should it.
More to the point, if you’re doing searches in our directory to try and game the search engine to get your plugins to the top, then you’re doing it wrong and you need to stop doing that. Focus on making your plugin better. This is a better long run strategy than pulling SEO tricks like keyword stuffing.
Let’s try same search with Highest Rated, which is obvious where it comes from, the most stars is 5th, not first (I added the exact stars below):
(results in brief)
NextGEN Gallery
Version: 1.9.12
Updated: 2013-2-15
Downloads: 7,129,112
Average Rating:
4 stars [ 4.3 Stars ]
Author: photocrati
Grand Flagallery
Version: 2.70
Updated: 2013-4-16
Downloads: 781,035
Average Rating:
4 stars [ 4.2 Stars ]
Author: Rattus
Sociable
Version: 4.3.4.1
Updated: 2013-4-15
Downloads: 1,965,888
Average Rating:
4 stars [ 4.1 Stars ]
Author: sociable
Widget Logic
Version: 0.56
Updated: 2013-1-6
Downloads: 546,051
Average Rating:
4 stars [ 4.2 Stars ]
Author: alanft
Slideshow
Version: 2.2.11
Updated: 2013-3-27
Downloads: 210,391
Average Rating:
4 stars [4.9 Stars ]
Author: Stefan Boonstra
As I stated above, “Highest Rated” is currently under reconstruction due to the reviews system changing the way ratings work.
I would be great if the search results showed what they were searching based on, so it was clearer how the order is determined.
If it was based on newness of plugin to repository, then the date added to repository would be a more logical date to show, rather than last updated date.
It seemed like the logic changed recently, and it was mystifying me.
Thanks for responding.
Best,
Mark
I would be great if the search results showed what they were searching based on, so it was clearer how the order is determined.
We don’t want you to know how the order is determined, for much the same reasons that Google doesn’t give out the details about their search algorithms.
You shouldn’t care about the search results. You should about the users of your plugin, and making your plugin the best plugin for the job. That will get you more users, more satisfied users, word of mouth, and ultimately lead you to better results.
Samuel,
We DO have the best product, easiest to use, least expensive, targetting small businesses (Less than 5 employees).
However that does not guarantee it will madly take off. It also takes work to get the word out and get enough trials going for people to realize how good it is. Luckily more and more of our new customers are comparing to our competitors and are blown away by how elegant and easy to use the interface is.
Have a great day,
Mark
I agree with your statements, but my point is that focusing on our search engine isn’t really particularly helpful to your ultimate goals. The majority of people don’t find plugin recommendations from our search engine. Some do, certainly, but in the long run, it’s like Google. You don’t always click on the top result.
Today I added version tracking to our plugin because I saw it can be graphed, which adds valuable information, and may have found my issue:
I found the unusual search results of the ratings due to my plugin dropping its search tags, likely due to a typing mistake on my part. I was trying to figure out why people searching for a plugin like ours was not being listed in results. It then seemed like many of the results were giving odd results. Different than what I would expect.
I was trying as a fellow developper to let you know you seemed to have a search problem, which you do, it is just limitted to ratings it would seem. I had introduced a bug in my keywords that I had to find and resolve on my own.
Best,
Mark
Today I added version tracking to our plugin because I saw it can be graphed, which adds valuable information
If you’re talking about the pie chart of versions on the stats page, I would not consider that data to be particularly trustworthy at present. Our gathering mechanism for the version information is not very accurate.
Also note that when you make a change to a plugin, the change in search results is not immediate. Our search system indexes on an infrequent and odd schedule, so changes can take days to take full effect, sometimes. In the meantime, the order may fluctuate wildly immediately following a change.
Thanks Samuel for you time,
I appreciate your work and feedback,
Mark