While talking to one of my colleagues at lunchtime, it occurred to me that I rely on a number of WordPress plugins to extend the basic functionality of WordPress. Rather than wax lyrical about them, here’s the list;
Subscribe to Comments
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/
Lets visitors who have commented subscribe to further comments on a post - meaning you can reply in the comments, and they will be notified.
Akismet
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/akismet/
Detects spam in comments, and sidelines it into a huge bucket from where you can either approve or reject it. Akismet uses everybody’s decisions to train itself - so you benefit from the combined knowledge of all akismet users.
Google XML Sitemaps
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/
Generates and submits detailed maps of your site to Google, MSN, and several other search engines to help direct their search engine while crawling your site.
WordPress Stats
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/
Provides basic statistical analysis of visitors to your blog. Not as detailed as Google Analytics, but great to look at quickly while logging into your blog.
Feedburner
http://www.feedburner.com
Feedburner works by collecting your RSS feed, making it as compatible as it possibly can, and then feeding it out as your own. While doing so, it can also be configured to post it out to Google, Technorati, etc. - meaning visitors are more likely to spot your site.