AjaxWP – Adds AJAX to all aspects of your WordPress site, which speeds up the load times.

Alexa Rank – Display your Alexa rank with pride.

Ajax Comment Preview – Allows readers to preview their comment before submitting.

asTunes – Retrieves data from your Audioscrobbler/last.fm profile and posts it as a list on your blog.

Codebox – Creates a side scrolling box for displaying code snippets.

Crossroads – Adds thumbnails and comments from your Flickr account.

FireStats – Full featured statistics including referrers and popular pages.

Google PageRank – Allows you to display your Google Page Rank on your blog.

Hardened-Trackback – Generates a single-use trackback to help fight trackback spam.

imgViewJX – Refreshes an image on your main page from a selected directory.

Live Spell Checker – Adds a spell checker to your posts in the admin area.

Plug ‘n’ Play Google Map – If you include longitude and latitude in your post, this will automatically add it to a Google Map on a separate page. Very useful for blogs writing restaurant reviews or about events.

Wordpress Mailing List – Have a mailing list? Let readers subscribe and unsubscribe from the front page of your site.

WP e-Commerce – Adds a shopping cart to your WordPress powered site.

WP-Polls – Adds fully customizable polls to your blog.

WP-Post Ratings – Allows readers to rate your posts.

Zorpia That’s Hot Box – Allows visitors to send posts they like to Zorpia.com and vote on their favorites.

For your readers

AJAX Comments 2.0 – Auto updates the comments page with no full reload, enabling much smoother commenting than the older full reload system.

AJAX Google Video Search – Search Google Video without leaving your favorite blog.

AJAX Shoutbox – Real time conversation with sound to alert you to new messages.

Cool Weather – Allows visitors to see the weather forecast for any location they choose.

Currency Converter – Adds a real time currency converter to the page with data from Yahoo Finance.

Google AJAX Search – Allows you to setup search for your site, the web, and another site such as your Flickr account.

Google MapSearch Widget – Allows readers to search Google Maps without ever leaving the page.

Gregarious – Social bookmarking plugin that adds Digg, Reddit, Feedburner FeedFlare buttons and more.

Hottaimoijiruna – Adds a self-updating clock to the site for a timezone defined by the blogger.

Inline Ajax Comments – Hides comments until the user clicks on them.

Inline Ajax Page – Displays a snippet of a post and then allows the reader to click a button to load the full entry without going to another page.

Tagboard Widget – Adds an auto-updating tagboard to your site that displays new messages as they are posted.

Units Converter – Converts hundreds of different units of length, area, volume, weight / mass, and speed without reloading the page.

WP Movie Ratings – Combines data from IMDB with the blogger’s movie review and allows the readers to add their own ratings.

XDTalk – Allows real-time conversation between registered users.

Fight Spam

Akismet – Anti-spam plugin from the creators of WordPress that uses a central database of spam comments to identify spam. Requires a free API key from Wordpress.com

Spam Karma – Analyzes comments for spam based on a karma system.

Bad Behavior – Prevents spam bots from accessing your site by analyzing their HTTP requests.

Did You Pass Math? – Asks users a simple math question before their comments are posted.

Comment Timeout – Closes comments on old posts.

Encourage Commenting

BlogFollow – Shows a snippet of the user’s blog beneath their comment.

DoFollow – Removes “nofollow” attributes from links in comments so search engines can follow them.

DoFollow Trackbacks – Removes “nofollow” attributes from trackbacks.

Show Top Commentators – Lists your most frequent commenters along with links to their blogs.

Improve Appearance

Nicer Trackbacks – Improves the appearance of trackbacks from other blogs.

WP-NoSh*t – Filters bad words from comments.

Numbered Comments Adds numbers to comments.

AuthorHighlight – Highlights comments by the blog’s author.

Comment Highlighter – Styles comments based on the author’s name, email, or URL.

wp-chunk – Truncates long URLs in comments to prevent them from stretching the page.

Enable Rich Comments

Custom Smileys – Adds clickable smiley emoticons to comments.

TinyMCEComments – Turns the comment box into a full-featured rich text editor.

Live Comment Preview – Allows readers to preview their comment before posting.

Edit Comments XT – Allows users to edit their own comments.

Enable Avatars

Gravatar – Displays user-selected avatars next to comments.

Favatars – Pulls the favicon from a commenter’s blog or website and uses it for their avatar.

MBLA – Adds user images from MyBlogLog to comments.

OpenID Comments – Lets readers comment with their OpenID identity.

Show Off Comments

WP-Most Commented Posts – Displays the posts with the most comments in the sidebar.

Latest Comments with Avatars Reloaded – Shows the latest comments along with the MyBlogLog avatars of the commenters.

Allow Better Conversation

Simple CoComments – Tracks the conversation across blogs.

Comment Karma – Digg-style voting on comments.

Quoter – Allows users to quote a previous comment in their comment.

Whisper – Lets users “whisper” comments that are only visible to one person.

Moderate Comments Effectively

Comment Twitter SMS Notification – Notifies you of new comments via SMS through Twitter.

Bannage – Adds the ability to ban users from commenting by name, email, or IP.

CommentCentral – Allows batch opening and closing of comments on multiple posts.

404 Notifier – Provides a log of your 404 errors.

Admin Dropdown Menus – Streamline your crowded admin panel menus by turning them into dropdown menus.

Admin Panel Comment Reply – Adds a “reply to comment” option in the comments section of the admin area.

Ajax Spell Checker – Uses a variety of dictionaries to spell check your posts.

Auto-hyperlink URLs – Provides you with several options for automatically turning URLs in to hyperlinks.

AWSOM Pixgallery – Designed to allow artists and webcomic creators to create a portfolio of their artwork.

Batch Categories – Makes it easier to add posts to another category, or to organize posts when importing from another blog.

Custom Admin Menu – Gives you the power to rename, hide, or move just about anything you want in the admin area.

Custom Write Panel – Allows you to customize the “Write” panel of WordPress by hiding things you don’t need such as “Post Password” and adding things you would like easier access to.

Dashbar – Allow your admins to have admin access while working in the frontend of the blog without having multiple windows open.

Dashboard Editor – Completely customize your admin dashboard using PHP, HTML, and widgets.

DashNote – Adds a post-it note feature to the dashboard to jot down notes to yourself.

Digital Fingerprint – Adds a digital fingerprint to your posts so you can search the web to see if your content has been scraped.

Domain Mirror – Allows one WordPress install to be accessed from multiple domains.

Download Counter – Counts and tracks the downloads of all your files.

Email Users – This plugin allows you to mail registered users on your blog based on their role.

Enforce WWW Preference – Provides 301 redirects to queries with /index.php and enforces your use or non-use of www to make sure your search engine indexing is uniform.

Excerpt Editor – Provides you with more control over the excerpts such as length and auto creation.

FeedBurner FeedSmith – Ensures all your RSS feed subscribers get counted in your FeedBurner subscriber count.

Fix Database – Checks your WordPress database for errors and attempts to fix them.

Genki Announcement – Allows you to add an announcement before your first post without editing your themes.

Genki Pre-Publish Reminder – Allows you to write reminders for things like setting categories before you post.

Google Analyticator – Inserts Google Analytics code on every WordPress page.

Google Sitemaps Generator – Will create a Google compliant site map of your blog.

GT Post Approval – Adds “Approve” and “Reject” buttons to the administrators view on all posts, which is ideal for blogs with multiple authors.

Instant Update – Handles the tedious chore of upgrading your WP install with just one-click.

Just Unzip – Allows you to upload a zip folder from the Write page. Just Unzip will then unzip the contents and associate them with the current post.

Khanh’s Instant Notepad (KIN) – Allows you to jot notes to yourself on a notepad.

Leprakhauns Word Count – Adds a Java powered word counter to your editing page.

Mass Post Manager – Allows you to move or delete all the posts in a category at once.

Mutliply – Allows one administrator to control multiple blogs.

NextGEN Gallery – Adds an image gallery to your control panel.

OneClick Install – Adds an extremely powerful uploader and installer for plugins and themes to WordPress, eliminating the need to unzip or FTP.

Page Link Manager – Allows you to easily rearrange, hide, and move pages.

Permacop – Allows you to redirect any URL to another.

Post2Page – Allows you to take existing posts that you have and convert them into pages.

PlugInstaller – Helps you install new plugins by obtaining it, uploading it and unpacking it.

podPress – Includes numerous features for bloggers wishing to add podcasts to their WordPress install, such as previews, RSS feeds, and adding cast to posts.

Search and Replace – Search all your posts at once for specified text, quickly replace it.

Share This – Adds multiple social bookmarking links and an e-mail-this function in one handy button.

Simple Pop-up Images – Add a thumbnail image to your post; when the user clicks on it, they get a larger pop-up of the picture.

Simple Tagging – Simplifies the tagging process to drop down menus and includes the ability import from your current tagging plugins.

Site Unavailable – Publishes a message that your site is down while still allowing admins to login.

Throttle – Monitors your bandwidth and limits non-essential items during heavy load times to help performance.

Wikipedia-NoFollow – Written in response to Wikipedia’s implementing a “nofollow” rule to their outgoing links, this plugin allows you to add nofollow to links you give to Wikipedia pages.

WordPress Mobile Edition – Strips your blog down for easy reading on phones and PDAs.

WordTube – Why use YouTube when you can host and stream your videos as you please? Includes a flash player.

WP Grins – Adds clickable smilies to both the administration area and comments section.

WPAds – Add rotating banner and text ads to any location you define on your blog.

WP-Custom Login – Allows you to modify the user login page logo to an image of your choice.

WP- DBManager – Provides you with the ability to optimize the database, back it up, restore, delete the backup database, drop emptied tables, and run selected queries.

WP-phpMyAdmin – Provides you with quick access to your PHP databases directly from the WP admin area without having to login to phpMyAdmin.

WP Plugins Tracker – Verifies all of your plugins are the latest version by checking them against the wp-plugins-db.org database.

WP Super Edit – Provides you with more control over the Visual editor including emoticons, layers, style attributes, and more.

WP-Table – Allows you to add a table directly in the Visual mode or import from a spreadsheet.

Image Management Tools

Aniga Gallery – Allows you to create picture galleries that use the WordPress comment system.

Batch Image Uploader – Upload and resize multiple images to your blog at once.

Duh Gallery – Creates a photo gallery from your uploads folder in WordPress.

ImageManager – Includes interface for browsing and uploading images and basic tools such as cropping and rotating.

WP Image Gallery – Create photo galleries from within WordPress and display them in posts.

fMoblog – Post pictures with descriptions from a mobile phone.

Pop-up Image Gallery – Photo gallery plugin with various options for transitions.

PhotoZip – Allows you to upload a .zip file to create an image gallery.

PictPress – Automatically generates a picture post from a directory on your server and resizes pictures on the fly.

Importing Images from Other Services

Another Flickr – Allows your readers to browse thumbnails from your Flickr albums and go directly to full size images.

BubbleShare – Display photo galleries from your BubbleShare account.

Facebook Photos – Shows thumbnails of photos from your linked Facebook account.

Flickr Photo Album – Pulls in your Flickr photo sets and displays them as albums in WordPress.

FlickrRSS – Displays most recent images from any RSS feed from Flickr such as a user, group, or tags page.

Fotobook – Import your Facebook photo albums into a WordPress page.

ImageShack Uploader – Upload an image to ImageShack’s free storage service and insert a thumbnail into your posts.

Slickr Gallery – AJAX photo gallery that pulls in images and photosets from Flickr.

Smugmug Gallery Bar – Insert photos from your Smugmug account into blog posts.

Image Display Effects & Hacks

Enlarger – Displays a thumbnail but loads the bigger image in the background so when clicked the full size version loads instantly.

IImage Panorama – Helps you create a 360 degree panorama picture to add to your blog.

Image Headlines – Create cool text images for the titles of your posts.

Lightbox 2 – Generates thumbnails that when clicked load in a lightbox.

Multi-Topic Icon: Shows images that represent each of the categories assigned to a blog post.

Random Image – Pulls a random image from your blog and links back to the post it came from.

Transparent PNG Fix – Make sure your PNG files don’t look nasty.

WP Wetfloor – Create the ever-popular reflection effect for the images on your blog.

Playing Music

Del.icio.us MP3 Player – Makes links to MP3s in your posts playable and easily postable to del.icio.us.

Audio Player – Inserts a simple MP3 player into your posts that plays uploaded audio files.

XSFP Player – Flash player that allows you to embed music on your blog via http.

What Am I Listening To?

DG PlayingNow Updater – Displays the song you are currently listening to on iTunes, MSN Messenger, or J. River Media Center.

EZ-Scrobbler – Displays your most recently listened to tracks on last.fm.

iTunes Spy – Displays your most recently listened to tracks on iTunes.

Pandora Feeds – Displays data from Pandora feeds, for example, a list of your stations, bookmarked songs, and bookmarked artists.

onAirNow – Now playing plugin that displays most recent song from iTunes or WinAmp.

Podcasting Tools

Odeo – Embed a podcast that you recorded on Odeo.

Podcast Release – A “release” form for guests of your podcast, accepting your terms.

PodPress – Full featured plugin for podcasters including feed generation, iTunes preview, and download stats.

iPodCatter – Helps podcasters create a valid feed for the podcast directory on iTunes.

Miscellaneous Audio Tools

Evoca Browser Mic – Allow your blog readers to send you voice comments which you can later post to your blog.

Odiogo – Converts your text to speech and provides a link for your readers to listen to your posts.

Video Tools

Anarchy Media Player – Plays a wide variety of audio/video file formats in the appropriate player on your blog.

Easy Inline SWF – Allows you to insert Flash files in .swf format into your posts without any weird tags.

SeeTheFace – Complete tool for recording video and posting it to your blog.

Extreme Video – Plays any .flv file on your blog with support for YouTube, Google Video, Quicktime, and more.

Noembedder – Automatically adds a noembed section to any embedded content that does not already have one.

YouTube Brackets – Allows you to simply enter a URL for a YouTube video versus copying and pasting embed code.

wordTube – Video player that includes the ability to program a menu of videos.

TubePress – Display YouTube galleries as blog posts or a sidebar item.

YouTube Video Gallery – Displays thumbnails for any gallery from YouTube.

vPIP – vPIP stands for “Videos Playing In Place,” meaning it will only embed after a specified image or link is clicked by the user.

Stats for the Blog Owner

AWStats Xtended Info – Requires AWStats and adds things such as screen size, Flash, PDF, and Java support.

Backlinks inbound links counter – Uses MSN to track all incoming links to your site.

Bluetrait Event Viewer (BTEV) – Tracks your logins, deleted users, last passwords, invalid user names and more.

Bsuite – Tracks page loads, search terms used on incoming links, top performing posts, and lists related posts at the bottom of each entry.

CountPosts – Shows you how many times each post gets visited while ignoring visits from the admin.

DownloadCounter – Counts downloads of files you attach to your posts.

Dschini Bot Checker – Lets you know which pages are being checked by which search bots and how often.

Feed Statistics – Monitors your feeds and tells you which readers are being used, the links that readers click on, and which stories they are reading.

FeedBurner SiteStats Enabler – Helps you install the FeedBurner script in your site with instructions in both Italian and English.

FeedBurner StandardStats – Simplifies the process of installing the FeedBurner script so you can monitor your RSS feed statistics.

FeedStats – Statistical tool for counting your feeds, measuring length of stay on your site and more. Stats appear in the dashboard.

FirStats – Full-featured, Ajax powered stats for your admin area.

GoStats web counter – Lets you install the GoStats counter in your blog as a text widget.

Lightstats – Plugin generates bar and pie graphs for statistics about posts, comments, and categories.

Live – Lets you watch the activity on your blog in real time. See things like posts visited, new comments, and feeds grabbed.

Open Web Analytics – Tracks page views, visits, unique visitors, clicks, referring websites, and plots visitor geography on Google Earth.

Posts/Comments Time – Shows you the number of posts and comments for the hours of each day so you can better plan your posting times.

Search Phrases – Straightforward plugin that just displays what search terms brought the visitors to your site.

Social Traffic Monitor – Monitors the social sites Digg, Netscape, Reddit, Newsvine, Fark, Slashdot, Del.icio.us, and StumbleUpon.

Ultimate Google Analytics – Adds the Google Analytics script to your site while also counting downloads and outbound links.

Word Count – Tracks the word count of your posts.

WordPress.com Stats – Uses your WordPress API key to pull stats and places them in a page in your admin area.

WP OnlineCounter – This plugin counts the number of readers currently online, highest number of visitors at the same time, and the total count of visitors.

WP-SlimStat – Tracks all of the standard stats you’ve come to expect from a stats package, but in a very compressed database for less load on your server.

WP-Stats – Very general statistics package focusing on your number of posts, comments and so on.

Stats to Share with Visitors

Akismet Spam Count – Show off your Akismet spam power and let spammers know you’re protected from their attempts.

Alexa Rank – Allows you to display your Alexa rank for the world to see.

GeneralStats – Displays your choice of number of users, categories, posts, comments, pages, links, words in posts, words in comments and words in pages.

Google PageRank – Display your Google Page Rank on your front page.

Impress – Display number of users, posts, pages, comments, categories, words, and more on your blog.

Jon’s Showoff Rankings Widget – Displays your Google Page Rank, Alexa Traffic Ranking, and Technorati Rank all in one plugin. (Ed note: this plugin is no longer supported, and the developer recommends using the widget version instead.)

Post Administration & Layout

Add Graphic Signature – Adds a graphic of your signature to your posts either automatically or via the insertion of a simple tag.

Adman – Allows you to post ads such as Google AdSense at the beginning or middle of a post.

Another WordPress Meta Plugin – Allows you to add Meta tags and keywords to your post to try to further optimize your blog for search engines.

Category Remindr – Category Remindr puts a button next to the “Publish” button to remind you to select the categories for your post.

Corrector – Adds Google Spell Check to your admin area and can spellcheck in 27 languages.

DropCap First Character – Enlarges the first character of a post to give it more of a magazine appearance.

Front Page Excluded Categories – Allows you to exclude posts from certain categories on your front page.

Limit the size of main page posts – Set the number of words you want each of your main page posts to contain so that if they exceed that limit, a link is provided to a page with the complete post.

Notify On Draft Post – Notifies the editor when the authors of a multi-author blog post a new draft for review.

Post Notification – Sends an email to a list of registered users when you make a new post. Includes the option to include the post in the email.

Post Repeater – Re-posts an entry with significance every week, month, or year.

Post Templates – Allows you to set up repeating templates such as a “Picture Of The Day” without all of the tedious copy and pasting.

PostPost – Allows you to add content such as advertisements before or after every post.

Posts Expire – Set an expiration date on your post.

Subscribers Only – Lets you mark a post as “subscriber only” so they are visible only to members of your site.

Subscribe-Remind – Adds a reminder to the bottom of each post to subscribe to your RSS feed.

WordPress PDA – Helps your readers view your blog on a PDA browser.

WP-orderposts – This plugin allows you to custom order your posts (as opposed to the default reverse-chronological order).

WP-Sticky – Make a post the default first entry on your blog.

Post Tools

Auto Link – Use the Google API to set delimiters like [movie]Move Title[/movie] to make it auto link to the page on IMDB.

Author Complete Post List – Gives you the ability to display all the posts by an author, including the ones where they are co-author.

Blog by Mail with Categories – Changes the “Blog by Mail” feature in WordPress so you can also set the category.

Code Markup – Allows you to include snippets of code, including HTML, in your post without it affecting the page.

Easy Post-To-Post Links – Allows you to use a shortcut when writing a post linking to another post on your blog.

On This Day – Displays posts posted on the same day in previous years.

Plain Text Paste – Helps to ease the pain of pasting something you wrote in Microsoft Word into WordPress.

TD Word Count – Displays a word count for each post on a blog, and gives you a total count.

Ubernyms – Allows you to make shortcuts for terms and links you use often. Just enter the abbreviation and this plugin fills it in for you.

WP-Footnotes – Allows you to add footnotes to a more detailed post.

wpSpoiler – Allows you to hide text behind [spoiler] tags. Ideal for sites with tv or movie reviews.

Crossposting

DJ-Email-Publish – Once you publish on your WordPress blog, this sends the post as an email to your other blogs such as MSN Spaces.

Live Space Sync – Allows you to import all your posts to your Microsoft Live Spaces so you can advertise your blog to your contacts.

LiveJournal Crossposter – Automatically posts your latest entries to your LiveJournal account, or any other LJ software based site.

Vox Crossposter – Cross-posts your posts to your Vox account.

Xanga Crosspost – Allows you to have your posts appear on your Xanga account.

RSS Feed Tools

©Feed – Adds copyright info to your feed and places a digital fingerprint on it so you can search the web for content theft.

Add to Any Subscribe Button – Allows your readers to subscribe via most popular RSS readers.

AddThis Sidebar Widget – Adds RSS info and social bookmarking links to the sidebar.

Better Feed – Adds a “read more” button, a copyright notice, and a “Add to del.icio.us” link.

DeCat – Allows you to select certain categories to not be included in your feeds.

Feed Control – Gives you the ability to exclude posts from your feed, add pages, and more.

Feed Footer – Adds copyright and advertising to your RSS posts.

Feed Master – Assigns a number to your feed readers to give you a better idea of stats specific to them.

Feed Styler – Allows you to style your feed.

FeedBurner FeedSmith – Make sure all your RSS feed subscribers get counted along with the ones signed up via FeedBurner.

FeedStats – Gives you statistical data on your feeds.

Feedvertizer – Add text links to the end of your feed posts.

RSS Flashfeeder to Myspace – Feeds your last two posts to your MySpace page.

Slash Comments – Adds info to your feed about how many comments are on the post.

Subscribe-Remind – Adds a little reminder to subscribe to your feed at the end of each post.

Social Bookmarking

Digg Button – Allows you to add the Digg button anywhere in a post with a simple code snippet.

Digg IT – A plugin that allows the inclusion of the Digg button.

JPF Add to Reddit – Allows readers to submit your posts to Reddit.

Share This – Adds multiple social bookmarking links and an email-this functionality in one button.

Sociable – Adds the linking information for 61 social bookmarking sites.

Social Bookmark Buttons – Adds social bookmark buttons for Digg.com, Netscape.com, Reddit.com, Del.icio.us, Stumbleupon.com, Google.com, Socialogs.com, and Socialposter.com.

Social Bookmarks Plugin for WordPress – Provides you access to the social bookmarking icons for more than 20 popular sites.

Socializer Plugin – Adds the ability to post to nearly 40 social bookmarking sites.

SocialList – Allows you to see which of your posts have been submitted to del.icio.us and Digg.

Socialogs.com – Allows you to have your entries submitted to Socialogs.com.

WP-Notable – Adds the icons for numerous social bookmarking sites to each post.

wphotspots – Tracks the activity of your posts on several social bookmarking sites.

Social Site Integration

Blogmark Integration – Display your Blogmarks list on your blog.

DiggClick – Add the Digg button to the beginning of your posts.

DiggIT – Allows you to add the Digg button even if someone had already submitted your post.

Facebook Comments – Allows you to bring comments on your Facebook notes over to the relevant blog post.

Gregarious – Combines a Digg button plugin with Alex King’s popular “Share This” plugin for social bookmarking.

Ma.gnolia Widget – Display links from your Ma.gnolia account using this widget.

Reddit Button – Adds a Reddit button to your blog posts.

StumbleCrumble – Display a pre-determined number of your latest Stumbled websites on your own blog.

Status Indicators

360Voice Bits Plugin – Connects with 360Voice.com to post the latest info on your 360 standings.

AIM Online Status Indicator – Let your readers know if you’re online.

IM Online – Presence indicator for AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Google Talk, Skype and ICQ.

MeeboMe Plugin For WordPress – Display a Meebo widget on your blog so you can chat with your visitors.

WP-ICQ-Status – Display your current ICQ status on your blog.

Xbox 360 Gamercard WordPress Plugin – Allows you to display your Xbox 360 Gamecard.

Miscellaneous Site Integration

.Mac Sidebar WP Plugin – Display information from your .Mac account in your WordPress sidebar.

Amazon Wishlist – Add your Amazon Wishlist to your blog.

Bloggersnap – Allow your visitors to take a webcam shot and post it to your blog.

EasyPayPal – Allows you to accept payments for many services including subscriptions, trial periods, and more.

Ebay Sales Lister – Display Ebay listings (from your account or others) on your site.

Facebook Photos – Allows easy access to your Facebook photos for use in your blog.

GetWiki – Embed a Wikipedia article in your blog.

iTunesSpy – Display your latest played songs on your WordPress blog.

Last Amazon Review – Displays latest reviews from an Amazon RSS feed. Supports Associate IDs.

MasterWish – Place your wishlist from MasterWish.com on your blog.

Netflix – Share portions of your Netflix queue with your readers.

Phoogle – Add Google Maps with markers you choose to any of your posts.

Slashdot.org Headlines – Display the latest headlines from Slashdot on your site.

PayPal Donate Button – Allows you to add a “Make a Donation” button powered by PayPal.

WP-Twit – Display your latest Twitter postings on your site.

Yahoo Browser-Based Authentication – Allows users to sign in to your blog using their Yahoo ID and password.

Your YouTube Favorite Videos – Display your favorited YouTube videos on your site.

YouTube Video Gallery – Display a gallery of YouTube videos on your site.

Left Sidebar

DarkT – Slick black design, extremely legible, very modern looking, fixed width and widget ready.

Green Bug – Very pleasant looking fixed width and widget ready theme, great for a nature blog.

HijauSegar – Very open with easily edited headers. Fixed width.

Integral – Very uncluttered design, makes a great theme for a company blog, fixed width and widget ready. Fixed width.

Melod Art – Unique coloring, would make a great family blog. Fixed width and ready for widgets.

Notes – Make your personal website look like an actual personal journal.

Rainbow Feather – Fluid width theme, perfect for a writer or someone aspiring to be one.

RedHorizon – Clean and professional, stylish. Fixed width and widget ready.

Riaz – Very professional and classy looking, could be used for many needs. Fixed width and widget ready.

Rounded Transparent – Very clean, easy to navigate, stylish, fixed width, widget ready.

Simply Blue – Nice rounded corners, modern looking, fixed width and widget ready.

Simplicity 2.0 – Just as the name applies, very simple, but visually appealing. Would make a great personal blog, or possibly fashion related. Fixed width, widget ready.

Skeletons In My Closet – Very easy to read, fixed width, great for a personal or music blog.

Solid – Very stylish, clean reading, fixed width, widget ready.

Was: ImJTk – Nice mixture of colors, very smooth and free flowing, fixed width, widget ready.

Right Sidebar

Blending Curves – Pink is a difficult color to pull off in a lot of themes, but this one does it well with blending in a “torn out journal pages” feel. Fixed width and widget ready.

Blogger’s Cafe – Very simple, great for sites about blogging, coffee shops, or just plain old coffee lovers. Fixed width.

Blue-Ridge – Muted colors so as not to distract, great for a personal blog, fixed width, widget ready.

Boxy Mint – Great personal page or company blog, versatile, modern look. Fixed width and widget ready.

Elegant Purple – Great personal blog with an all purple look. Fixed width and widget ready.

Green Love – Great personal or travel theme, fixed width and widget ready.

Green Pro 2.0 – Excellent use of green, versatile look that can be used for many different sites. Fixed width and widget ready.

Leaf On Edge – Very versatile theme that could be used for blogs on any number of subjects, fixed width.

Lemon & Lime – Pleasing colors, logo placeholder, fixed width and widget ready.

Melmac – About as modern as you can get. Fixed width, widget ready.

NightLight Idea – Nice black theme with lite animation in the header. Fixed width and widget ready.

Otek – Orange colored, but not enough to be distracting, clean navigation, Fixed width and widget ready.

Persian Minyx – Fixed width and widget ready, unique way of marking the width.

Pgreen – Very readable, versatile look for a fixed width theme that is widget ready.

Raised – Blue everywhere, but still readable. Child page navigation is a little sloppy, but passable. Fixed width.

RedPlanet – Great for a science or technical blog, very customizable, fixed width, widget ready.

Silver Light – Another good professional person’s theme, fixed width, widget ready.

SybmimDX Remix: Ghost – Very simple, would make a great professional blog, fixed width.

05 Moon 1.0 – This is an excellent black theme, variable width and widget-ready.

Acid Green Pro – Fixed width, centered layout with widget ready sidebars. Tons of space in the sidebars for lots of goodies.

Alike Theme – Another darkish theme, but quite easy on the eyes. AdSense ready, fixed width and widget ready.

Ayumi – Primarily white theme with good highlights, easy to read and widget ready.

Bionic Jive – Compartmentalized well, clean read, variable width.

Blogging Simply – Fluid width, widget ready, loads of space in the sidebars for all the extras you want.

CitrusIsland – Variable width, widget ready, colors that pop.

Cordoba Green Park – Variable width, widget ready, easily changeable color schemes.

Creaker – Widget ready and perfect for customizing.

Crunch – Available in multiple colors, easy to change header.

Daily Digest 3.0 – Fixed width, widget ready, newspaper style.

Fava Beans and a Nice Chianti – Very elegant looking, great for a foodie blog, variable width.

Fresh Apple – This theme is based around a green apple, how can it not be soothing to the eye? Variable width and widget ready.

I Like Grey – Variable width with lots of boxes in each side column for customization.

i3Theme – For Mac lovers, this theme makes your WordPress blog look like your favorite operating system.

Illacrimo – Widget ready, smooth appearance. Perfect for a graphic artist’s site.

Intensive – Google AdSense optimized, good for newish blogs.

Journalized Winter – Variable width, great for someone that likes lots of info on their pages. Also available in Sand colors.

Mandigo – A fixed width (800 or 1024) theme that can be two or three columns based on settings on the Options page. Widget ready.

Mogle – Black and orange professional looking theme, Adsense ready.

Navigation WP Theme – Based on the WordPress Admin area, variable width, widget ready.

Nuberu – You can’t get much cleaner than plain black & white. Fixed width.

OmegaLeaf – Very sleek white and red theme, fixed width.

Pink Web 2.0 – Versatile theme with numerous uses, widget ready and fixed width.

ProSense – Fixed width, clean reading, and available in three different color schemes. Widget ready.

Soccer Theme – Fixed width, widget ready, great for a sports-themed blog.

Talian 1.0 – Clean colors, easy to read, variable width, widget ready for easy customizing.

Track 17 – Variable width, great for a tech themed blog.

TyreMonkey – A nice red and black three column design. Fixed width.

Ubmodicus – Lightweight, fast loading, widget ready.

Unnamed – While it lacks a name, it has Ajax features (the black area you see is a pop-in) as well as being widget ready. Fixed width.

Zen – Very stylish, easy to read, fixed width, widget ready

This advantage proceeds directly from the first. In the examination of the previous point I already touched on this question a little. I gave an example with a change in the firm’s logo on all pages of the website. But a flash website requires constant updating, especially with respect to content. Information must stay fresh.

Separating information and design on the site makes it possible to accelerate the process of updating and refreshing the contents of the website since it does not require people who perform these operations to know html-markup, graphics, etc. That means it is possible to prepare the website design (to order it from a firm that provides such services) and then to produce the contents using their own resources, without spending money on the constant employment of strangers or including on your staff design specialists, which would be required for a static organization of the website. Even expenditures of time for updating are considerably reduced.

Possibility of changing site content in response to to the actions of a visitor.

The third achievement was a breakthrough on the path to developing a global network. You be the judge, all the advantages described in the first two points facilitated the work of website creators and decreased their expenditures, but for the visitors, this was not very important. But now the third advantage was directed expressly to them. Only thanks to this can you see an enormous quantity of electronics stores, virtual clubs, Internet games, etc. Only the ability to change the site content by a specific visitor allowed these projects to be brought to life.

Imagine that you drop into an electronics store that uses static pages. In this Internet store you will not be able to look at your cart, you will not be able to trace the payment process and fulfillment of the order, you will see nothing but pages with products. Yes, you can still place an order, but would you call this a store, would you buy something there?

Another example is forums and chat rooms of which countless numbers have appeared on the web. They all are created dynamically, none of them could exist without the support to this technology. The bulletin boards, special interest clubs, virtual games and competitions – none of this could be there.

Add to this all the systems of electronic payment and you will understand how the web would be suffering without dynamic sites. More accurately now you can imagine how we acquired everything with the advent of these new capabilities.

Disadvantages of dynamic sites.

As with everything else in our imperfect world, dynamic sites have their drawbacks.

The first drawback is the need for additional software to construct a dynamic website. On a static site, all the pages are already prepared, the server only has to display them to the visitor, while on the dynamic site it is necessary to introduce some changes, and this requires corresponding program solutions.

The second drawback is an increase in the requirements for the functional power of server systems. This problem proceeds directly from the preceding one, since now it is necessary to run some program on a server that modifies the pages of the website, and only then to display them to a visitor. This problem becomes especially noticeable on websites that have a lot of visitors. Often in such cases it is necessary to produce additional optimization of the code for the site to operate normally.

Consequently, the cost of services for content on this site is considerably higher than for static webpages. Although now, even many free webhosts support the capability of designing dynamic sites, which goes without saying for the paid hosts, where everything needed is part of the standard collection of services.

The complexity of large structural changes in the site is the third drawback, which also proceeds from the first. You may be a little upset since I was talking before about lessening and simplifying modifications. But don’t rush, we can figure this problem out in more detail. In this case everything is tied to the software used on the website. Specifically, the software unites the pieces of design and data into one valuable site. But any program has its limitations, and, if you want to obtain something that it is not provided by the program, it becomes necessary to change the program. Either to fix the old or start new.

Imagine, you have a forum placed on your website, and you want it to be set up as a chat room. If this capability was not originally available, then no matter how you change the design or the forum, it will not be able to be a chat room. You will have to change programs.

Despite these drawbacks, dynamic sites are becoming more and more widespread on the web, and the disadvantages I described previously are outweighed by the advantages.

Conclusion:

Static:

• Pluses

1. The site is cheaper to develop.
2. The static site is unconditionally cheaper in technical support (hosting). Practically all providers can provide hosting of a static site.
3. On a static html-site it is not compulsory to adhere to a strict information network, and it is possible to create any pages practically independently from any other.
4. Using a static site creates a considerably smaller load for the server and uses the fewest server resources.

• Minuses

1. For content editing on a static, html-website a specialist with html- experience is needed.
2. With the addition of new materials, and in particular new sections, often it is necessary to change many (if not all) website pages to ensure the change in the navigation system. This very frequently introduces errors. Certainly, it is possible to use automated systems development, but such systems create an extreme excess in the code that is definitely reflected in the speed the pages load, incompatibility with certain viewers, and loss of many of the advantages indicated above.
3. With further development of the website it becomes problematic to support its integrity, which is especially noticeable upon exceeding 1000 pages.

A static site is cheaper for development and technical support, but these merits are outweighed by serious deficiencies in the effectiveness of the publication of information and expenses for the content specialist (html-editor) or the need to pay a design studio for the publication of materials.

Dynamic:

• Pluses

1. A dynamic site, as a rule, is managed entirely through a simple Web interface. It is possible to manage not only separate pages, but also structural divisions, and the site’s information network.
2. Managing the site is accessible (and recommended) for managers who directly interact with clients and know what questions are needed to be operationally explained on the website.
3. An important plus is the effectiveness in publishing new materials, announcements, and another important information, which makes contact by the visitors (clients) to the site “live” and interesting.
4. A properly organized dynamic site can be developed without damage to material published earlier.
5. Since a dynamic site is managed more easily, as a rule, it is developed more rapidly than a static site, and the increase in speed rationalizes its development.
6. There is no need to retain expensive specialists (or to pay a design studio) for operational html-editing; all the work for the publication can be carried out by managers, working in primary activities of the firm, by themselves.
7. An undoubted plus is the long period of service of a dynamic site. Since the site constantly changes with new materials, sections and so forth, it does not “lag behind life,” and the question of redesign of a dynamic site arises only with serious reorganization of the company or the creation of a new style of the company.

• Minuses

1. A dynamic site, as a rule, is more expensive in development than a static site and comparable to a flash site.
2. A dynamic site is more expensive in technical support than a static site since it requires that the company, from which it gets its support, use more highly qualified specialists.
3. A dynamic site requires a server with a greater quantity of resources, and not all providers can achieve this technical support.

A dynamic site requires higher expenditures for development and technical support than a static site, but these expenditures are quickly rationalized by the reduction in the expenses for content editing and development of the information system of the site. A dynamic site stays in service longer and is more effective than the static site. It is better to assign the technical support of dynamic site to its developer, since not all providers can correctly support this site, and it is not always possible to figure out whose fault it is, the developer’s or the provider’s, when something goes wrong in his or her work.

Static site.

Static is what I am going to call a page that is stored entirely on the server and displayed in a steady state to the visitor (it should be kept in mind that a static page can contain some varying elements, for example banners; however, it nonetheless remains static).

For greater clarity I will offer an example. Imagine that you save a page to your computer. Let’s assume it is now stored in the file “Page.html”. If you open it with your browser, then you will see the entire contents of the page. This is approximately the same form (as retained on a local computer) the static pages are stored in on the server that just sends them to their visitor.

Static is what I will call the website where the majority or all pages are static.

Dynamic site.

Dynamic is what I will call a webpage that is made of several parts by the server either by receiving through introducing or changing the data on the page.

Let’s examine the action of generating a dynamic page in more detail. If a static page hardly undergoes any changes and falls on the visitor’s screen in its “protoplastic” form, then the dynamic page, as it is viewed by a person, does not exist on the server. It is assembled by several different methods from data that are stored on the server, and only after this is shown to the visitor.

But how it can be assembled? Let’s take a look:

1) By uniting several (two or more ) individual parts onto one page can be the first version – this is the simplest method of generation.

2) The second version is by filling out a template page with information that is stored separately or that is obtained as a result of the operation of an algorithm (for example, as a result of calculations).

3) The third and, perhaps, most wide-spread version is the combination of the first two in all possible variations, i.e., the page is assembled from several pieces into which additionally are introduced different changes.
Dynamic is what I will call the website where the majority or all pages are created dynamically.

“The American Airlines company once had 40,000 static Web pages. With the installation of the Broadvision system they were all converted into 40 templates. But when people visit the American Airlines site, 80% of them use only 2 of these templates” (Michael Kennedy, Vice President of Marketing, Broadvision)

Let’s go on to the pluses and minuses of both approaches as they relate to each other.

Advantages and drawbacks of dynamic sites.

The question arises, so why is this even necessary, making the page dynamic, dividing it into parts, storing information separately elsewhere and so forth? Isn’t it simpler to create a site the way it will be seen by the visitor and not put on airs?

The Internet began with static sites, dynamic pages and sites appeared later, and they are beginning to crowd out their ancestors, which means that they have their advantages. Let’s look at what advantages dynamic sites have by comparison with static, and, well, so that this survey would be fair, let’s give some time to their drawbacks.

First I have to say that, in giving my definitions, I began with a description of separate pages. This was done so that you would see more clearly what this discussion is about. Now, with the comparison, I will look at whole sites: static and dynamic. Accordingly, the advantages will concern only finished sites, since sometimes they simply do not apply to pages.

So, with the appearance of programming languages, which a server could carry out, the possibility arose to introduce changes in data sent to a visitor. However, what was this good for?

1) The separation of information and design.

2) Simplifying modifications and updating pages.

3) The possibility of changing content in response to the actions of a visitor.

Let’s look at each point more closely.

Separation of information and design of the website.

The use of dynamic pages makes it possible to store a given design template, where, depending on which page the visitor goes to, the required contents are placed. This variant is very convenient and the entire site needs only one or more templates created and all the changes in the design that are needed on the site are produced with only them.

By way of example, imagine a corporate site where several hundred pages (this not too much given the present capacities). And let’s suppose the organization decided to change its logo. There is no simple way to do this if the site is static: it is necessary to introduce changes on each page. And what if the site consists of thousands of pages, and it is necessary to make changes constantly? How much time and human resources will be required for this?

If however the site is dynamic, it is a lot simpler. Changes are introduced into one or more template files, and all the pages of the website automatically update.

From the point of view of organization of work and division of labor, the variant for creating the website on the basis of templates is practically ideal. The person responsible for the site design will not be able to get involved in the process of page content, and all design problems will be his or her responsibility alone. And vice-versa, the person who has to fill in the information on the website will not be able to ruin the site design. Each person takes care of his or her own business without interfering with the other. This speeds the work up and decreases expenses.

At the dawn of the Internet sites were miserable in terms of color and design solutions saturation audio-video. Website last century have been static, sometimes they like the plain text document. This situation does not satisfy either site owners or users of the global network. And so, and others wanted more opportunities for communication and implementation of its future of the Internet. Urgently needed to liven animated electronic pages.
Since the invention in 1987, the GIF format of the site were able to deploy resources to moving images. Pictures just succeeded one another with a certain amount of time. Of course, it was very easy and without special effects, but it was already a breakthrough! The site has become «revive».
Independent hardware GIF format was developed by CompuServe for transferring raster images across networks. In the 1989-meters format modified by adding support for transparency and animation. This format allows the use of compact, with small image file on a Web page that has a major impetus for wider dissemination GIF on the World Wide Web.
My second birth was online in 1994, when the technology was invented by World Wide Web (www). Since then, the number of websites is beginning to grow in geometric progression. The need for the use of animated design elements is increasing.
It is still widely used on sites gif-animation, and some webmasters are beginning to introduce animated images produced using a vector graphics technology. However, there is a serious problem: the huge number of diverse software animation can not be displayed on the computer each user. Need to download and install various plug-ins, or else the site may not work.
Solving the problem has been relatively simple: two huge corporations engaged in animation and vector graphics, decided to unite to create a single application for the production of Web animation. In November 1996, Jonathan Gay and his colleagues had joined the company Macromedia, and Future Splash Animator turned into Macromedia Flash. Later in the corporation joined Adobe.
Flash technology has been actively developed and implemented in the global network. Its basis is a special programming language – ActionScript. Now when you create a product could use a variety of video, audio and graphics files. New technology made a revolution in the development of web pages. Now they really could be called interactive, animated and information-rich.
Now it is very difficult to find a site that at least the minimum amount would not be «flash». On the contrary, there is a sufficient number of pages, completely decorated in the flesh. Typically, this site dedicated to games, design studios, personal pages and other sites, amazing beauty and unusual realization. Major portals and information resources to avoid the use of Flash, because the information placed on «flash», can not be displayed on some computers (for various reasons, users can turn off your browser’s settings to display the flash-animation). Besides «flash» are not indexed by search engines, and therefore can not participate in the SEO-optimization.
Instead, Adobe Flash often use JavaScript, and interactive Web applications – AJAX. However, these alternative technologies, unfortunately, not so flexible and easy to use as Flash.