And just like that, I am the new author of an old plugin! The plugin called Google 404 is now something that I will be maintaining moving forward.

There has been some buzz growing recently about the adopt-me tag in the WordPress plugin repository. The concept is simple: connect authors who no longer wish to maintain their plugins with developers who have the time and energy to pick up the ball and run with it. By tagging their plugin with the `adopt-me` tag, it tells the world “I’m looking for someone to take this over” (or, sometimes, “We’re looking for someone to join our team”).

The idea was intriguing to me, so I took a look and found Google 404 which was originally authored by Ben Huson. It seemed like a simple enough concept, applying a custom Google widget to your 404 page in order to provide a Google site search to site visitors who end up not finding the content they came looking for. I took a look at the code, saw a few things I thought I could do from what Ben had started, and decided to reach out to him regarding the adoption. He indicated the plugin was something he simply didn’t have an interest in anymore, and so we started the process of transition.

I’m looking forward to releasing my updates to the plugin soon: for now, I’ve simply updated the version within the repository with information about the adoption and to “formally” complete the process. This should be fun!

Click here to check out Google 404 in the WordPress repository.