50 Essential WordPress Plugins You Should Know

Nowadays, just about everyone can consider themselves a blogger. The tools and plugins made available online are making it even easier to break into the blogging scene. Competition is rife and you might do well to get help from any source you can find. One of the ways is to get yourself plugins that will help make certain processes smoother for you and your readers. There are plugins for various purposes including to aid caching and image optimization, SEO, anti-spam, commenting, content-sharing, bookmarking and so on.

In this article, I have compiled a list of WordPress plugins that WordPress users might find a use for. Instead of searching in the Internet jungle, take your pick from the list of plugins below. The plugins are free unless stated otherwise.

Shortcut to:

• Caching plugins
• SEO plugins
• Anti spam (security) plugins
• Comment plugins
• Social-bookmarking plugins
• Statistics plugins
• Backup plugins
• Forms plugins

Speed Up & Caching Plugins

CloudFlare

CloudFlare ensures better protection of your blog from spammers. It shows the correct IP addresses of commentors who are commenting on your blog. You can protect your site from online spammers and hackers, and it helps your website load faster as well.

Hyper Cache Extended

Hyper Cache Extended is a very flexible and easy to use caching plugin for the WordPress platform, designed mainly for users who run their blog on low resource hosting providers.

Quick Cache (Speed Without Compromise)

If you want real speed then Quick Cache is the plugin you must have. This plugin takes a snapshot (or cache) of each and every page of your blog and serves these snapshots to the visitors during every visit.

WordPress Advanced Image Lazy Load (Premium)

If your website has a number of images to load every time a visitor visits your site but it takes a lot of resources loading them up, then you should definitely consider this plugin. This plugin will ensure that only the images on demand are loaded first, thereby saving valuable bandwidth and improving user experience.

W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache is the most complete WordPress caching plugin available. It can improve your website’s performance by caching the pages, objects, minifying the databases by content delivery network support.

WP File Cache

This plugin implements object level persistent caching which caches only the data that WordPress explicitly asks it to cache, instead of the entire page.

WP Smush.It

This plugin reduces the file sizes of the images by using the Smush.it API from WordPress. The images are compressed almost without any loss and automatically in WordPress. It also has features to compress multiple images in bulk.

WP Super Cache

WP Super Cache is a very fast WordPress caching plugin that generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. So instead of loading the heavy PHP scripts of your blog, your visitors will be served with these static html files which will make your blog appear to load faster.

SEO Plugins

All In One SEO Pack

This plugin is the first choice for new and inexperienced WordPress users, who want their blogs to be fully Search Engine Optimized without digging deep into SEO. It provides you with almost every function needed in just a single page.

Google XML Sitemaps

This Google XML SItemaps plugin generates XML sitemaps for your WordPress blog, so that it becomes easy for crawlers like Google and Bing, to index your site better.

Robots Meta

This plugin enables you to add relevant robot meta tags to your pages, unfollow some links and not index unimportant pages and archives.

Scribe SEO (Premium)

Scribe is a powerful SEO plugin for WordPress which helps you reveal profitable keywords, tweak your pages for ranking better in the search results and build high quality links based on particular content that you create.

SEO Pressor (Premium)

This plugin is a great WordPress plugin that can make on-page optimization easier than ever. It will take care of almost every single on-page factors of your posts and can help your site rank higher in the search results.

SEO Smart Links (Premium)

SEO Smart Links is a great plugin which can fully automate the internal linking process of your WordPress blog. It also has the capability to convert specific keywords as internal and affiliate links.

SEO Ultimate

This is an all-in-one SEO plugin, that gives you a user-friendly approach of on-page optimization for your WordPress blog. It is available for free and has tools for almost every optimization required.

Smart SEO (Premium)

This is a very simple SEO plugin that can make your blog SEO friendly with the SEO Scores it geneates for every single page. It has a very simple and effective admin panel that can seamlessly integrate into your existing WordPress admin panel.

SEO Friendly Images

This SEO Friendly Images plugin is a very helpful plugin that adds alt and title attributes to all your images automatically and makes your post W3C/xHTML valid as well.

WordPress SEO By Yoast

This is one of the most complete WordPress SEO plugins available so far. You can perform almost any SEO functionality for your blog with the help of this invaluable plugin by Yoast. Not to be attempted by new users though.

Anti Spam And Security Plugins

Akismet

Akismet is possibly the best way to protect your website from web spam. Akismet filters comments and trackback spam, so that you can focus more on managing other important things. It runs on autopilot and provides 24-hour protection.

AntiSpam Bee

AntiSpam Bee is a spam protection plugin that is made up of sophisticated techniques to handle digital rubbish and protect your website from every potential threat.

Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin

Growmap Anti Spambot plugin serves as an alternative for Akismet; it adds a client-side generated checkbox to the comment forms. Users are asked to confirm that they are not a spammer by just ticking the check box.

Login LockDown

This plugin serves as a security plugin and records the IP Addresses and timestamps of every login attempt. If there is a number of failed login attempts within a short period of time, then the login functionality is disabled for all requests from that range.

SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam

This plugin prevents spam from automated bots by adding a CAPTCHA in comment, registration, login and lost password forms.

WP-ReCaptcha

reCAPTCHA is most probably the most popular and widely accepted CAPTCHA systems by all users. This plugin integrates reCAPTCHA anti-spam methods in WordPress as comment, registration and email protection.

Comments Plugins

CommentLuv (Free/Premium)

Comment Luv helps you to increase comments and traffic to your blog and also gives the opportunity to your blog of going viral in Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. It also reduces spam, shows stats of links being clicked, allows commentors to use their name in comments, and many more.

Disqus

Disqus is a powerful commenting system that helps you to build an active community of users by effective tools and features like Realtime Comment System, Social Integration, The Community Box, etc.

Facebook Comments For WordPress

This plugin allows visitors to leave comments on various posts on your blog using their own Facebook account. It integrates into your blog and any reader logged into Facebook will be able to comment into any post of your blog.

IntenseDebate

IntenseDebate is a commenting system that has features such as innovative discussion tools that can make conversations more fun and increase reader engagement.

Livefyre

Livefyre is one of the best comment platforms that aims to replace old and outdated comments systems with innovative and interactive real-time conversations. LiveFyre is the easiest way to build an active community and increase user engagement.

OpenID

OpenID is an open standard that allows users to authenticate themselves on websites without creating new passwords. It enables users to register or comment on WordPress blogs.

Subscribe To Comments

This plugin allows commentors to subscribe for email notifications to subsequent comments on a particular post.

WP Ajax Edit Comments

This plugin enables users to edit their own comments within a certain period of time. Users can also move, mark as spam, blacklist, moderate or delete a particular comment.

Social Bookmarking Plugins

AddThis

AddThis allows your user to share your content at 330 of the most popular bookmarking and social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon and many more.

Share Buttons By Lockerz 

Share Buttons make sharing articles in your site easy and simple, by providing a drop-down menu with more than 100 social networking and bookmarking sites to choose from and share to.

ShareThis

The ShareThis plugin allows the sharing of content from your site through email and 50 different social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Reddit, and many more. This plugin also has Facebook’s Like button and Google’s +1 button for easy sharing of articles.

Sociable

Sociable adds a bar of icons of different social networking and bookmarking sites that you can choose for your articles. If they see what they like, your readers can easily share the contents to many bookmarking sites. You can choose to display the sites you want for sharing from the control panel.

WordPress Social Bar (Premium)

WordPress Social Bar adds a floating sharing bar to your articles in your site. The bar which is always visible allows easy sharing of the article by your readers to various social sites with just one click. It is also fully customizable according to your needs.

Stats Tracking Plugins

Clicky (Free/Premium)

Clicky is a real-time web analytics for tracking your website’s visitors. It has great features like Real Time Analytics, Visitor Segmentation, Twitter Analytics, Mobile Version, Video Analytics and many more.

Extended Google Analytics For WordPress (Premium)

This plugin adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google Analytics tracking for your WordPress blog. It has other features like event tracking for downloads, tracking of outbound links and linking Adsense to analytics.

StatPress

Statpress is a real-time tracking plugin that integrates into with the WordPress platform enabling you to track the data of your visitors. It also collects informations of spiders, search keywords, feeds, browsers, OS etc.

WordPress.Com Stats

It is a simple, clear and concise plugin that track stats for your WordPress blog with no additional load on your server.

Backup And Database Management

BackupBuddy (Premium)

BackupBuddy is a complete solution, which can backup, restore and migrate WordPress sites with ease. It can backup your entire WordPress as well as install, restore it with a single click, or migrate from one domain or server to another in a few clicks.

VaultPress (Premium)

VaultPress by Automattic is considered to be one of the best WordPress Backup and Security plugins for "Every post, picture, and page. Every comment, revision, and setting. Everything." in the market. It is perfectly suitable for personal, professional, small and medium business sites.

WP-DB Manager

This plugin allows you to repair, backup and restore your databases. It also supports automatic scheduling of backups and optimization.

WP-Optimize

WP-Optimize is a simple yet effective WordPress cleanup plugin, which can clean your databases and optimize it without phpMyAdmin. It can optimize databases by removing post revisions, spam and unapproved comments.

Forms Plugins

AJAX Contact Forms (Premium)

AJAX Contact Form plugin is a simple jQuery based AJAX powered form management plugin that seamlessly integrates into your WordPress platform. It also has a direct Twitter Messaging feature built in it.

Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 plugin is a simple and flexible plugin that you can use to manage multiple forms, customize and mail its contents. It can also be punched with Akismet of CAPTCHA for spam filtering and so on.

DynamicWP Contact Form

It is yet another contact form plugin powered by AJAX, with sliding effects and floating buttons. This plugin is under open source GPL License, and is completely free to use without any restrictions.

Gravity Forms (Premium)

Gravity Forms is one of the best contact form plugins that can enable you to quickly design and edit forms right from your WordPress admin panel. It has various features like conditional logic, entry management, notifications, styles and layout, and many more that can give your forms a unique feel.

Quform (Premium)

Quform is an easy way of building forms in a few clicks using the drag and drop form builder. This plugin ensures that you have the best form design and functionality without having to touch a single line of code.

News from - http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/essential-wordpress-plugins/

Man buys 14,962 domains in 24 hours, makes millions in a month

Cybersquatters are quick to register domains that could fetch thousands of dollars and Mike Mann is one of those individuals. He has been on a domain registering spree for the past few days. CNET reports that he’s registered close to 15,000 domains in the process, in a day, between Tuesday and Wednesday last week. Mann says he wants to own the world and by the looks of things, he plans to do that by registering all the major, popular domains on the net. Mike Mann from Delaware, USA, who is 45 years of age now, used to run an ISP in the 90s but he made his first big fortune when he was offered $25,000 and then $50,000 for the Menus.com domain. Mann had bought the domain for a mere $70. He took the domain sale business seriously and started a business doing that.

No domain is safe

Mann, like some others made a business out of it and even sold it to other companies. NameMedia as it is known today, once belonged to Mike Mann under the name BuyDomains. For a while, Mann was busy with other ventures that he started up - nothing to do with buying and selling domains. Some two years back, he got back to registering domains and he has been registering some 300 domains a day. The sale of the domains gets him some $400,000 a month - that’s close to 20 lac.

Things haven’t always been great for those in the domain buying and selling business. With more top-level domains coming up, companies have more options and there are those who are opting for it. This means, they don’t have to pay the price that some of the domain selling businesses ask for. Companies are even willing to use modified names with a few characters missing as an option. These alternatives cost a fraction of the price of the main domains itself.  While many would claim the actions of Mike Mann to be illegal and against the law, there are those who believe that it’s no different than any other business. Some countries even have laws that requires the individual registering a domain to provide proof that a particular domain is being registered for a genuine purpose.

News From -  http://tech2.in.com/news/general/man-buys-14962-domains-in-24-hours-makes-millions-in-a-month/300762

Gideon Sundback: 'Doodle’ honours zipper man

Gideon Sundback: `Doodle’ honours zipper man Zeenews Bureau

California, US: World’s most popular search engine, Google, has once again created ripples with its latest ‘doodle’, a giant zipper running down the centre of its homepage.

The zipper doodle is Google’s tribute to Gideon Sundback, who perfected the zipper. April 24 is Sundback’s birthday.

Gideon Sundback: `Doodle’ honours zipper man
Born in Sweden in the year 1880, Sundback was trained as an electrical engineer and immigrated to the US in 1905.

After a stint at electric company in Pennsylvania, Sundback joined the Universal Fastener Company in New Jersey, and became its head designer in 1909.

Engineers have been working to develop a fastener with interlocking teeth for over 20 years before Sundback perfected the zipper.

His innovation revolutionised the clothing industry - gone were the days of cumbersome buttons and hook-and-eye fasteners.

Sundback’s smart design - a dimple on the underside of each tooth and a nib on the top – ensured that no single tooth has enough room to come apart, hence making the zip strong.

Importantly, he also designed a machine for manufacturing the new zipper. 

News from - http://zeenews.india.com/news/net-news/gideon-sundback-doodle-honours-zipper-man_771409.html

Google Android Applications List

Google has announced the winners of its $10 million contest to develop innovative apps for its open source mobile platform.

Late last year, Google announced that it would give $10 million worth in prizes to Web 2.0 Development Companies to develop innovative and useful applications for their open source mobile Android platform.

Roughly nine months later, Google has announced the winners, and the applications it has selected help users do everything from calling their nearest taxi cabs to comparing sale prices at different stores to calculating their carbon footprint.

Cab4me

Utilizing Android's Google Maps application, cab4me lets users call a cab to their location with a single click. By using GPS capabilities to locate not only the user's current location, but also the location of the nearest cab company, the application can initiate a call to the cab company with a mere click on the map. The application was developed by Konrad Huebner and Henning Boerger.

Locale

Ever get embarrassed at a company meeting when your cell phone unexpectedly goes off? With Locale, you can make sure your device knows to switch to vibrate mode the minute you step into your office. With Android's GPS capabilities, Locale adjusts your phone's settings to wherever you're located. Thus, your phone will forward calls to different numbers based on whether you're at work or home, or will send out a status message on Twitter letting people know where you're located. This application was developed by Carter Jernigan, Clare Bayley, Jasper Lin and Christina Wright, with additional contributions from Jennifer Shu.

PicSay

Essentially a drop-and-drag picture editor for your mobile phone, PicSay lets users spruce up their pictures with color correction, highlighting, word bubbles and distortion effects. It also can be used to create event invitations or holiday greeting cards that can be sent out to friends, family and associates. This application was developed by Eric Wijngaard.

Softrace

This application actually lets you set up real, live races with your friends and track their progress in real time while the race is going on. Whether on foot, bicycle or skis, Softrace uses Google Maps' location API to track each user's progress, and can store statistics of the race onto Android's SQLite database. This application was developed by Staffan Kjellberg and Thomas Kjellberg.

TuneWiki

An open source music-based social network, TuneWiki lets users share what they're listening to with each other, or to use Google Maps to find what users around the world are listening to. TuneWiki also plays audio and video for songs while scrolling synchronized lyrics as they play. The application creates a virtual library of songs that hooks up to the Internet and suggests similar-sounding songs or artists. This application was developed by TuneWiki, with additional help from Rani Cohen, Chad Kouse, Zach Jobbs, Jared Fleener and Amnon Sarig.

Wertago

Billing itself as "the mobile application nightlifers have been waiting for," Wertago is a social networking application that lets users coordinate social events with their friends, rate current hotspots and create personalized social networking profiles for users to share their favorite locations. Like many other Android applications, Wertago uses Google Maps API to map out different clubs, restaurants and theaters. This application was developed by Kelvin Cheung, Teresa Ko, Peter Ree, Robert Sarvis and Douglas Yeung.

Life360

This is a neighborhood-centric social networking application that keeps users up-to-date with their local communities and families. Life360 users can receive emergency alerts in their neighborhoods and can send notices to everyone in the area. Whether you're holding a backyard neighborhood barbecue or looking for help to find a lost pet, Life360 gives you quick access to your neighbors and your family. This application was developed by Chris Hulls Dilpreet Singh, Luis Carvalho, Phuong Nguyen and Steve Potell.

GoCart

The goal of GoCart is to help shoppers gather as much information as they need to make smart, informed decisions. Using GPS and Android's built-in camera to scan bar codes, the application will search both the Web and local stores to compare prices of any product. The application also lets you read user reviews of products and can set up price alerts whenever prices go down either in stores or online. This application was designed by Rylan Barnes, with contributions from Noah Labhart and ZXing Developers.

Ecorio

An application destined to warm Al Gore's heart, Ecorio uses Android's GPS capabilities to track a user's carbon footprint while driving in your car. It also gives suggestions for carpooling and public transportation.

News From - http://www.articleforfree.com/articleforfree/Articles/Technology/Google-Android-Applications-List-1296018094.aspx

Web 3.0 Technology

With the Internet dominating the business world, the need to have an effective web 3.0 sites has increased among companies. In today's always-on world, a company's web site is critical to its ability to compete and succeed. Our top priority is to provide high-quality updates on web 2.0 and 3.0 solution around the world. Web 3.0 is defined as the creation of high-quality content and services produced by individuals using Web 2.0 technology as an enabling platform.

Web 3.0 Technologies (Semantic Web) Includes

1. Artificial intelligence

2. Automated reasoning

3. Cognitive architecture

4. Composite applications

5. Distributed computing

6. Knowledge representation

7. Ontology (computer science)

8. Recombinant text

9. Scalable vector graphics

10. Semantic Web

11. Semantic Wiki

12. Software agents

The Semantic Web 3.0 will bring structure to the meaningful content of Web pages, creating an environment where software agents roaming from page to page can readily carry out sophisticated tasks for users.

Web 3.0 is a place where machines can read Web pages much as we humans read them, a place where search engines and software agents can better troll the Net and find what we're looking for. A prime example of a Web 3.0 technology is 'natural-language search', which refers to the ability of search engines to answer full questions such as 'Which is the third leading software MNC in india'.

Web 3.0 developments will be driven by a new hybrid of innovation strategies that support a new business model. In the new models businesses will make quantum leaps because they will finally discover that fostering new ideas and empowering their employees by ethically compensating them for their intellectual property, makes more sense than the current business-as-usual rewards for hard work, It will finally dawn on companies to spend more money supporting the flow of ideas than pouring down the drain with outrageous severance packages and counter productive levels of disparity in income. My new business Innovation Black Soft Group is trying to cultivate a new approach and a new awareness.

Instead of using HTML as the basic coding language, it will rely on some new -- and unnamed -- language. Experts suggest it might be easier to start from scratch rather than try to change the current Web. However, this version ofWeb 3.0 is so theoretical that it's practically impossible to say how it will work.

The man responsible for the World Wide Web has his own theory of what the future of the Web will be. He calls it the Semantic Web, and many Internet experts borrow heavily from his work when talking about Web 3.0. What exactly is the Semantic Web?

Keep reading to find out………..

News from - http://www.articleforfree.com/Articles/Technology/Web-3-0-Technology-380190732.aspx