In October 2010 I had the privledge of writing a blog post about the JED reaching 6000 listings. Little did I know that 4 1/2 months later I would be writing a "7000 listings" post. The Joomla! Extensions Directory (JED) reached 7000 published listings this week. 
Not only are there now 7000 ways to extend Joomla, but those 7000 are very popular. In October we also announced that there were over 138 million downloads of these extensions. Now, there have been over 177 million which shows phenomenal growth in a very short period of time.
Another milestone was reached with over 100,000 votes and reviews for listings on the JED.
During this same time period, the main Joomla.org site was awarded a PageRank of 10, making it one of the 'most important' sites in the world according to Google's ranking. That's not suprising in light of W3Schools stating that Joomla! powers more than 2.7% of the entire web during this same period!
What's New?
Enhanced Approval Process - The approval process for an extension to be listed at the JED is very extensive. In the past, thousands of emails were exchanged per few hundred listings. To help alleviate this burden, an new enhanced approval process was implemented.
Unpublish Notifications - Keeping developers informed of what's happening with their listings is important. We understand it is difficult for a developer to check their listing status daily, so we have implemented a notification system that warns a developer of an unpublished listing.
Display of Numerical Rating - The generic star rating on the listing detail page is now a numerical average. As a visual signal to the end-user, the stars still remain on category pages, category listings, search and the home page
'Silent' Rating Disabled - Over the history of the JED, 'silent ratings' (ratings without a review) have been a source of debate and frustration. Now all ratings require a review in the JED.
New JED Team Structure and Volunteer Application - A new JED Team Structure was implemented along with a new Volunteer Application to assist with placing the right talent in the right area of the JED
15 New Team Members - Through the new Volunteer Application, 15 new volunteers have joined the JED Team! Keep an eye on the Team Structure page for more information about each new team member.
Joomla 1.6 - The Joomla 1.6 Compatability tag is available along with an RSS feed for extensions as they are classifed compatible for 1.6
What's Next?
Upcoming Listing Details Redesign - To further make the JED more accessible to users with disabilities and to enhance the user experience, a complete redesign (including more options for listing owners and users alike) is coming soon.
Category Reorganization - Quickly being able to find what you need in the JED is critical to the end-user experience. Part of the growing pains we have experienced is the directory categorization has become overwhelming to the user, developer and team. A full reorganization of the category structure is coming.
Upcoming Terms of Use and Directory Guidelines - A draft version of the new Terms of Use was published and an upcoming draft version of the Directory Guidelines is coming shortly
Ticket Support System - A simplified support system is coming that will allow the team to communicate directly with listing owners and record responses so a history remains for future generations. Additionally, tickets will be automatically escelated to team management if not answered within the allotted timeframe. This system will be housed on my.joomla.org
Shortlinks for each Listing - As the directory grows and changes, a need has arisen to have a "non-changing" short URL for each listing. Very soon, each listing will have it's own joom.la URL
And much more... stay tuned for further advancements!
