Plugin profile · observed daily since 02 Aug 2026
News Keywords
Active installs40+ rounded
Current authorJohn Sear
Owner changesNone while we have been watching
Last release10 years ago 19 Nov 2015
Support— no recent threads
Releases on record2
Rating5.0 /5 · 1
Added to directory23 Oct 2012
Requires WP3.4
Requires PHPfalse
Version lag2.8 behind
Tested up toWP 4.3.34 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 John Sear 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| John_Sear | 1 | 23 Oct 2012 | 23 Oct 2012 |
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.
Very early-stage: 40+ active installs. Too few installs to read anything into adoption. That is a gap in the evidence, not a mark against the plugin.
3 downloads a day over the last 7 days, rising 118% 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 13/day11 Sep 2026
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 | 28 Aug | 29 Aug | 30 Aug | 31 Aug | 02 Sep | 03 Sep | 04 Sep | 05 Sep | 06 Sep | 07 Sep | 08 Sep | 09 Sep | 10 Sep | 11 Sep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Downloads that day | — | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
Unchanged throughout: ratings total (1) · active installs (40+) · version (1.0.1) · support threads (0) · threads resolved (0)
40 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 directory13 years ago 23 Oct 2012
Requires WP3.4
Requires PHPfalse
Version lag2.8 behind
Is anyone still maintaining this?
- No release in 3,950 days (10.8 years). The last was 19 Nov 2015.
- Declares compatibility only up to WordPress 4.3.34, while 7.1 is current. The author has not confirmed it runs on the last 28 releases.
- John Sear publishes no other plugin in the directory, so there is no wider activity to compare against.
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.
- 12 May 20179 years agoDormancy threshold crossed540 days since the last release (2015-11-19). Dormancy is a maintenance observation, not a judgement about the owner.
- 19 Nov 201510 years agoVersion 1.0.1 released
- 23 Oct 201213 years agoVersion 1.0 releasedfrom the release logCommitted by John_Sear.
- 23 Oct 201213 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 John Sear for all 40 days we have observed it.
- It was last released 10 years ago (19 Nov 2015).
- Its author declares it tested up to WordPress 4.3.34; WordPress is now on 7.1.
- WordPress.org reports 40+ active installs.
- It carries 1 rating, averaging 5.0 out of 5.
What we don’t know yet
- 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.
Meta Tag Manager
Easily add and manage custom meta tags to various parts of your site or on individual posts, such as Yahoo and Google verification tags.
70,000+ installs4.8★ (84)updated 23 May 2026
SEO SIMPLE PACK
This is a very simple SEO plugin. You can easily set and customize meta tags and OGP tags for each page.
100,000+ installs4.6★ (14)updated 22 May 2026
Auto SEO META keywords (META tags keywords) optimization + WooCommerce
META TAGS for SEO allows you to display custom META Keywords strategically (based on Yoast / Rank Math in some cases) to boost your ranking on search …
700+ installs3.0★ (2)updated 02 Aug 2026
Simple SEO
Allows the modification of META titles, descriptions and keywords for all pages and posts. Also allows for default setting for of META title, descript …
10,000+ installs4.7★ (33)updated 10 Sep 2026
Head Meta Data
Adds a custom set of <meta> tags to the <head> section of all posts & pages.
10,000+ installs4.8★ (19)updated 10 Aug 2026
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 News Keywords: a person reads every submission, and corrections get a reply within 5 business days.