The plugin search is defective

[picocodes]

I have spent a couple of weeks trying out a few keywords on the plugin search and every time I notice a couple of irrelevant results on the first page simply because they have a lot of installs.

For example, if you search for 'ajax search', you will notice more relevant results hidden on page 2 while irrelevant results sit on page 1.

Using active installs as a ranking factor is a great idea. However, it's impact should be reduced to give newer plugins a chance.

Maybe you can use a ratio of total downloads to active installs as a way of calculating a plugin's quality. I mean, if lot's of people who download the plugin end up uninstalling it then it's probably low quality.

[jsmoriss]

More updates = more downloads, so using the number of downloads vs active installs as a quality indicator would not work. ;-)

js.

[Otto42]

For example, if you search for 'ajax search', you will notice more relevant results hidden on page 2 while irrelevant results sit on page 1.

What results are you seeing, exactly? Because the results I see on page 1 are extremely relevant.

Ajax Search Lite, SearchWP Live Ajax Search, Advanced Woo Search, YITH WooCommerce Ajax Search, Search – Instant Search for WooCommerce Search, WordPress Infinite Scroll – Ajax Load More, and so forth.

Every single result on page one is a search system of some kind. Extremely relevant results for that search query.