Amber
by Berkman Klein Center · Uncategorized
Amber keeps links working on blogs and websites.
Try it live opens a temporary test site in your browser, which can take about 20 seconds to load. Plugins that rely on outside services or a full server may not work completely there.
Health
D 48/100
Stale · Likely abandoned · Few reviews · Open vulnerability
Active installs
50+
≈58 estimated
Momentum
0%
downloads vs prior 30d
Biggest opportunity: Add “congress” to your wp.org tags. You rank #15 for it without listing it, close enough for a declared tag to move you up. WordPress.org counts only your first five tags, so with 2 listed it's a slot worth spending.
48 health vs 58 average across 25,755 Uncategorized plugins
Install conversion
How it's measured →1.0%
of downloads still active
At least 50 of 4.8K lifetime downloads are still running, above its category: the median Uncategorized plugin keeps 0.6%, across 17,772 plugins.
Downloads count every update, not just first installs, so older and more frequently released plugins read lower. Compare against other Uncategorized plugins, not across the directory. wp.org reports active installs as the bottom of a band, so the real rate is this or higher.
High removal-risk signals
63/100Maintenance and integrity signals that tend to precede a WordPress.org removal. Not an official status, a heads-up to act.
- Long abandoned. No update in 8+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
- Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 4.9.35, well behind 6.8.
Details
Recent review vibe
read from the latest 2 reviews to 2016-02-23Reviewers call it a genuine fix for link rot and like that it archives post links automatically, with asks for clearer docs on local archive folders and permissions.
Directory ranking optimization
How it's scored →How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.
Under-optimized
Most to gain: Update recency
Updated 2953 days ago, past the ~180 days where wp.org starts discounting
Tested up to WordPress 4.9.35; the current branch is 6.8
4.5★ over 2 reviews, smoothed to 4.12★ and held back under 25 reviews
2 of 5 tags set · short description in place
To rank higher: Last updated 2953 days ago — ship an update; wp.org decays a listing's search weight after ~180 days.
Get the full rank-higher report →Search visibility
How it's tracked →Directory searches this plugin turns up in, and which way each one is moving. WordPress.org publishes no history of search positions, so this starts the day we first tracked a keyword and never backfills.
40
Momentum
Mixed: one swing, the rest drifting
+0.2
Velocity
places per keyword, 25d
20%
Breadth
of keywords climbing, 25d
+0.2
Acceleration
recent half vs earlier
wp.org is where the directory puts the plugin for that search. On merit is where it would sit if results were ranked on rating, support and updates, without the install boost. The last column is how far the wp.org position moved, from our first reading in the last 90 days to the latest.
| Keyword | wp.org | On merit | wp.org move, 90 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| congress | #15 | #11 | 0 |
| censorship | #17 | #12 | up 1 |
| archiving your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| links your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
5 searches this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days, 2 listed. 3 left out as unrelated or noise (years, numbers, stray words). 2 of its tags aren't in the top 24 for their own search.
What to do about it
- Add “congress” to your wp.org tags. You rank #15 for it without listing it, close enough for a declared tag to move you up. WordPress.org counts only your first five tags, so with 2 listed it's a slot worth spending.
Daily downloads
Since 5 Oct 2022 · 1,489 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive
30-day downloads
Rolling 30-day volume · peak 98 · peaks are release surges
Directory rank
Ranked about #20,100 to #21,300, alongside the other plugins at 50+ installs. Plugins with the same install count swap places between wp.org requests, so this is where most of them sit. Checked monthly, last on 1 Nov 2026.
Rating trend
Star average over time · dips mark rough releases
Health trend
Composite health score, snapshotted daily
Update activity
Downloads in the last 30 days for every 1,000 active sites.
Not enough installs to measure. This needs at least 100 active sites; below that, a handful of downloads reads as tens of thousands.
Release cadence
No release in a yearHow often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.
0
releases in the last 12 months
8.1y ago
latest release · v1.4.4 · 1 Oct 2018
5
tagged releases on record
Recent releases
What its installed base runs
via wordpress.orgShare of active installs on each version of this plugin · 100% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.
Estimated active installs
The public count shows “50+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.
Crossed into this band 3 months ago and a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, so the real count is still just under 60.
Install history since 5 Apr 2016
Recent reviews
All reviews on wp.org ↗- ★★★★★ mgoi10.7y ago
Many thanks to the developers for this must-have plugin for anyone running an academic database using WordPress. The plugin provides a great solution to tackle link decay that does not involve manually creating links on perma.cc etc. A few words on areas of possible improvement: – better documentation for creation of local folder (and the pesky permission issues) in which archives are created – better documentation of how to access locally stored archives (I still haven’t found how to do this) – fix the selection of the places where archives are created: for now it seemingly randomly chooses among the three options I selected (local, perks.cc and internet archive), rather than creating three archives systematically – better error messages – a large number of links are not archived and there is no explanation as to why that is
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ mattmaldre10.8y ago
Having an internet where content is available over long periods of time is very important. This plug-in does a great job of making this dream become more realistic. Very handy how it automatically archives all the links in each blog post. The plug-in will tell you which links were successfully saved, and which aren’t. It does not archive tweets or flickr photos. But it does a handy job of archiving other articles. You can even set the limit of how big each archived article is, and the you can set the maximum limit of all the archived articles held on your domain. If you like, you can even bulk archive all the links on your blog at once! (use the Amber Dashboard). If you believe in an internet that is a resource for future generations, please consider using the Amber plug-in to archive all your links. This topic was modified 9 years, 6 months ago by mattmaldre. Reason: Part of my review was not correct. There is a way of bulk adding items. I have updated my review to reflect this
Read on wp.org ↗
Security history
via Wordfence Intelligence1 open vulnerability affects the current version (1.4.4). 0 of 1 disclosed are patched.
- 2025-01-14 CVE-2025-22754 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation Affects <= 1.4.4 No patch available
Vulnerability records provided by Wordfence Intelligence. Copyright 2012-2026 Defiant Inc. License and terms.
CVE records: Copyright 1999-2026 The MITRE Corporation. CVE terms of use.
AI assistants
How it's measured →Whether ChatGPT and Claude name this plugin when asked the category question, and whether the readme gives them something to quote.
Not measured yet for this plugin’s topics. Its tracked searches are not among the measured topics. See the topics measured so far.
Readme readiness
3 of 8 pass · checked 1 Nov 2026Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.
- ! Says what it does Short description names no action; say what the plugin does for the site.
- ! Has a FAQ Only 2 questions in the FAQ; 3 or more gives an assistant something to match.
- ! FAQ asks real questions 0 of 2 FAQ entries are headings, not questions ("undefined").
- ! Names who it is for Never says who the plugin is for or what they use it for.
- ✓ Names what it works with Mentions Amazon S3.
- ! Headings and lists 0 headings and 0 lists; assistants quote headed sections and bullet lists, not paragraphs.
- ✓ Enough to quote 1,517 characters of description.
- ✓ Tags match the text All 2 tags appear in the text.
Growth timeline
Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow
- 2026-08-13 60+ → 50+ down after 313 days in tier
- 2025-10-04 70+ → 60+ down after 8 days in tier
- 2025-09-26 60+ → 70+ up after 4 days in tier
- 2025-09-22 70+ → 60+ down after 177 days in tier
- 2025-03-29 80+ → 70+ down after 2 days in tier
- 2025-03-27 70+ → 80+ up after 4 days in tier
- 2025-03-23 80+ → 70+ down after 214 days in tier
- 2024-08-21 90+ → 80+ down after 5 days in tier
Competes with
The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).
-
Broken Link Checker 500K+ installs · 3.8★ · 1 shared tag A -
LuckyWP Table of Contents 90K+ installs · 4.9★ · 1 shared tag B -
Export All URLs 50K+ installs · 4.5★ · 1 shared tag A -
AutoConvert Greeklish Permalinks 40K+ installs · 4.6★ · 1 shared tag B -
Gallery Custom Links 30K+ installs · 4.7★ · 1 shared tag A -
Link Whisper Free 30K+ installs · 4.1★ · 1 shared tag B
Embed this report card
Drop a live Pulse card for Amber into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.
<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/amberlink" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="Amber — Plugin Pulse"></iframe> Amber: 50+ active installs, 4.5★ (2 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-11-01. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/amberlink
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