Plugin profile · observed daily since 02 Aug 2026
Latest News Widget
Active installs200+ rounded
Current authorTaylor Lovett
Owner changesNone while we have been watching
Last release15 years ago 30 Jan 2011
Support— no recent threads
Releases on record4
Rating— no ratings yet
Added to directory15 Jan 2011
Requires WP2.8.1
Requires PHPfalse
Version lag4.1 behind
Tested up toWP 3.0.5 WordPress is now on 7.1
PluginPedia reports published data and observable changes. It does not rate plugin quality or safety, infer intent, or make recommendations. These are observations rather than a verdict. How this works
Ownership
Held by Taylor Lovett throughout, with no change of ownership observed since daily tracking began on 02 Aug 2026.
Full observed history, including every field transition
Committing accounts
Read from the plugin’s public release log, so these predate this registry. A committing account is not an owner. Thirty accounts commit to WooCommerce and it has never changed hands.
| Account | Releases | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|
| tlovett1 | 4 | 15 Jan 2011 | 30 Jan 2011 |
This registry did not observe a transfer; it read these names off a public log. Whether that reflects a change of ownership is not something the directory publishes.
Adoption
How widely the plugin is installed, and what the people running it think of it. WordPress.org rounds install figures to one significant digit, so they describe an order of magnitude rather than a headcount.
Small but established: 200+ active installs. Enough sites to show it works in the wild, too few for adoption to say much on its own.
2 downloads a day over the last 7 days, steady against the 7 days before. Downloads are counted exactly and without a ceiling, so they show movement the rounded install figure cannot.
08 Aug 2026peak 11/day09 Sep 2026
No ratings on record, so there is no sentiment to report.
Daily record
Every field we record, one column per observation. Fields that never moved are named once rather than repeated across every column. A row of identical numbers would be padding.
| Field | 27 Aug | 28 Aug | 29 Aug | 30 Aug | 31 Aug | 01 Sep | 02 Sep | 03 Sep | 04 Sep | 05 Sep | 06 Sep | 07 Sep | 08 Sep | 09 Sep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Downloads that day | — | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Unchanged throughout: ratings total (0) · active installs (200+) · version (1.0.1) · support threads (0) · threads resolved (0)
39 days of observation, most recent 14 shown.
Maintenance
When it was last released, and how far its declared compatibility has drifted from current WordPress.
Added to directory15 years ago 15 Jan 2011
Requires WP2.8.1
Requires PHPfalse
Version lag4.1 behind
Is anyone still maintaining this?
- No release in 5,701 days (15.6 years). The last was 30 Jan 2011.
- Declares compatibility only up to WordPress 3.0.5, while 7.1 is current. The author has not confirmed it runs on the last 41 releases.
- The same account maintains 8 other plugins, and none has been updated in over a year, the most recent on 17 Apr 2023.
A plugin that does one thing correctly may need no changes for years; a long gap is not, by itself, evidence of neglect.
History
Everything dated that this registry holds about the plugin, most recent first. Releases carry the author’s own release date; everything else is dated to when it was observed.
Entries marked from the release log predate this registry, and daily observation began 02 Aug 2026. They were read from the plugin’s public SVN history after the fact, not watched as they happened. Everything else was observed directly.
- 02 Aug 20261 month agoFirst observed by PluginPediaDaily snapshots of this plugin’s directory record begin here. Everything above this line is observed; anything before it comes from fields the API itself reports.
- 23 Jul 201214 years agoDormancy threshold crossed540 days since the last release (2011-01-30). Dormancy is a maintenance observation, not a judgement about the owner.
- 30 Jan 201115 years agoVersion 1.0.1 released
- 29 Jan 201115 years agoVersion 1.0 releasedfrom the release logCommitted by tlovett1.
- 19 Jan 201115 years agoVersion 0.2 releasedfrom the release logCommitted by tlovett1.
- 15 Jan 201115 years agoVersion 0.1 releasedfrom the release logCommitted by tlovett1.
- 15 Jan 201115 years agoAdded to the WordPress.org directoryReported by the plugin API as the date this plugin was added.
What we know, and what we don’t
Everything on this page in one place, including the gaps, so that nothing here is mistaken for a clean bill of health.
What we know
- It has been held by Taylor Lovett for all 39 days we have observed it.
- It was last released 15 years ago (30 Jan 2011).
- Its author declares it tested up to WordPress 3.0.5; WordPress is now on 7.1.
- WordPress.org reports 200+ active installs.
What we don’t know yet
- Nobody has rated it. The first rating that arrives shows up here.
- No forum threads were open in the two months we measure, so how responsive its support is cannot be said. One new thread starts answering that.
What can’t be known
- Whether the quiet is neglect or a finished plugin. That is the author’s intent, which no dataset records, and a stable plugin can need no changes for years.
Every record on this site, this one included, works under the same limits. We read what WordPress.org publishes about a plugin, never the plugin’s own code, so nothing here says whether a plugin is well built or safe. Install counts reach us already rounded; a change smaller than a band step doesn’t show. We don’t track security advisories yet. For anything older than our first observation we rely on the plugin’s public release log, where one exists. What this registry can and cannot see
Similar plugins
This plugin has not been updated in a long time. These carry the same tags and describe themselves in the same terms, so they are a starting point for a replacement, not a recommendation. Check them yourself.
Latest Posts
Latest posts widget to display recent posts from category.
5,000+ installs4.6★ (7)updated 02 Apr 2026
25× the installs
Compare side by side Latest Posts Widget
Adds a widget that shows the most recent posts of your site with excerpt, featured image, date by sorting & ordering feature
200+ installs4.5★ (2)updated 16 Dec 2015
no release in over 18 months
Compare side by side Flex Posts – Responsive Posts Block
Show your posts with thumbnails in flexible, responsive layouts. Works as a sidebar widget or a block in the editor.
3,000+ installs5.0★ (24)updated 20 Aug 2026
15× the installs
Compare side by side Widget Post Slider
Widget Post Slider to display posts image in a slider from category.
1,000+ installs4.3★ (6)updated 13 May 2026
Compare side by side Newest Posts Widget
A widget that display the new posts of your site with Thumbnail, Excerpt, Date etc options.
10+ installsupdated 01 Apr 2018
far fewer installs · no release in over 18 months
Compare side by side Authors Posts Widget
Authors posts widget with blogger style.
80+ installs5.0★ (2)updated 25 Oct 2025
Compare side by side Grouped from the tags each author chose for their own plugin, so the grouping is only as good as those tags.
Reach out about this record
Corrections, missing context, or anything else about Latest News Widget: a person reads every submission, and corrections get a reply within 5 business days.