Incompatibility with Jetpack?

Interesting… that suggests that JetPack includes some code to over-write the #1 search result (rather than, say, insert at #1 so that the other results then move down the list).

I will ask them!

I’ve alerted them to this here: https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/jetpack-over-writing-plugin-search-results/

Yeah I just noticed it does the same thing for other plugins too. E.g. if you search for “contact form 7” it replaces that with a link to Jetpack’s contact form module. Not cool!

I’ve just replied on the other thread but wanted to post an update here as well.

Jetpack 7.1 was released a few hours ago and does indeed include a feature we called “plugin search hints”, that adds suggestions to the plugin search screen for folks who may be looking for features they may already have through Jetpack. The feature was introduced here.

This should not replace existing results though! That sounds like a bad bug. We’re looking into it right now, and I’ll update you as soon as I have some news.

Sorry about that!

In short, this definitely should not be happening and we’re looking into it. I’ll update you all as soon as this is fixed.

@philclothier Thanks a lot for catching that!

We released Jetpack 7.1.1, which fixes this issue. Thank you again pointing it out.

@professor44 @jeherve Thanks for the fix. As I’ve said on the other thread, even when working, this is quite a hostile move. JetPack already gets heavily promoted inside a default WP install and on the directory; for it to push other plugins down the search results (and so for one each time, it’ll be pushed off the page and not be visible at all) is surely unnecessary and going to be received badly by other plugin authors generally.

I have to agree with David, this seems like a very aggressive move. You’re effectively hijacking the w.org plugin search algorithm to promote services. I know the intentions might be harmless, but from the outside this looks very “anti social” as David put it in the other thread.

If this is seen as acceptable by other plugin authors, it won’t be long before the entire plugin installation page is covered in ads and filtered results to sell things.

Hi @davidanderson and @philclothier,

We don’t see it that way. We’ve had a lot of feedback from our customers that they didn’t realize that Jetpack offered something, but that they’d prefer to use Jetpack’s solution if they had known. We’ve even observed people searching for Jetpack features by name (like “publicize”) in the plugin directory, when they already had Jetpack installed. This just attempts to let them know that they already have Jetpack and does something they’re looking for, without getting too much in their way if they’re intentionally looking for something else. The only people who will see this are folks who have Jetpack installed and active already, and they’re absolutely free to ignore it, or click the “hide this suggestion” link and remove it entirely from their results.

Jesse

Hi @professor44,

The closest comparison I can think of is how Google displays Ads at the top of search results pages. However when doing so, they clearly state that it is an ad (it’s worth noting that they need to do this to comply with regs). To the user, it is clear that the ads on the page are indeed ads. The way it should be.

With this feature, you’re injecting advertising into a native search results page, with no clear indication that it is a paid service. There is also no natural comparison with other competing plugins, such as the review ratings or number of active installed. Take for example the search results for the word “backup” – https://imgur.com/a/U2YVLXa

To you and me, it is clear that Jetpack has inserted this. However to the average user this looks like WordPress is recommending a native solution instead of the plugins listed. If Jetpack wasn’t pre-installed on the main hosting companies, this wouldn’t be an issue, but if you marry those two things together this is make for a very uneven playing field. It’s worth noting that I don’t have any plugins that would be impacted by this, I just have a huge amount of sympathy for any that are.

I know you don’t see it that way, otherwise you wouldn’t have done it in the first place (and maybe you would have noticed it removed other plugins rather than bumping them down by 1, but hey why would you test something like that when it’s not your plugin which is impacted). I’m just trying my best to highlight how uncomfortable this will make the rest of the WordPress community and garner a negative attitude towards Jetpack in general.

Would it not have been more prudent to display a banner ad across the top of the screen rather than gaming the search results?

Is there a filter available to disable it?

• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by anonymized-11892634.