Top 18 most downloaded WordPress plugins ever May 27, 2009
Posted by rsentana in : blogging, computer, internet , 1 comment so farI found this information from del.icio.us today, and I think it has pretty good information to be shared. The original post is located here.
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Plugins are a big part of the WordPress community. Over the years I have used many of the WordPress plugins. WordPress plugins help you make a better blog and get more reader interaction. There are in total 4,245 plugins and these have been downloaded 22,152,788 times.
This post is a tribute to the top 18 most downloaded WordPress plugins ever (Akismet is not included as it comes with the default WordPress installation). Each of these 18 has been downloaded a minimum of 200,000 times.
- All in One SEO Pack – Automatically optimizes your Wordpress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization) – Downloads 1,603,368
- Google XML Sitemaps – Create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog – Downloads 954,459
- NextGEN Gallery – A full integrated Image Gallery plugin for WordPress with a Flash slideshow option – Downloads 715,819
- WordPress.com Stats – You can have simple, concise stats with no additional load on your server by plugging into WordPress.com’s stat system – Downloads 712,71
- WP Super Cache – A very fast caching engine for WordPress that produces static html files – Downloads 492,637
- Contact Form 7 – Just another contact form plugin. Simple but flexible – Downloads 393,916
- Wordpress Automatic upgrade – Allows a user to automatically upgrade the Wordpress installation to the latest one – Downloads 288,600
- Sociable – Automatically adds links to your favorite social bookmarking sites to your posts, pages and RSS feed - Downloads 284,117
- Viper’s Video Quicktags – Allows easy and XHTML valid posting of videos from various websites such as YouTube, DailyMotion, Vimeo, and more – Downloads 254,807
- Simple Tags – The successor of Simple Tagging Plugin and is THE perfect tool to perfectly manage your WP tags – Downloads 254,353
- WP-DB-Backup – On-demand backup of your WordPress database – Downloads 250,795
- Google Analytics for WordPress – Adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google Analytics – Downloads 239,837
- Google Analyticator – Same as the one above, enables Google Analytics tracking - Downloads 229,970
- Add to Any: Share/Bookmark/Email Button – Helps readers share, save, bookmark, and email your posts and pages using any service, such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious and over 100 more – Downloads 226,056
- WP-Polls – Adds an AJAX poll system to your WordPress blog. You can also easily add a poll into your WordPress’s blog post / page – Downloads 222,196
- Sidebar Widgets – Adds “Sidebar Widgets” panel under Presentation menu – Downloads 221,024
- podPress – A dream plugin for podcasters using WordPress – Downloads 207,491
- WP-PageNavi – Adds a more advanced paging navigation your WordPress blog – Downloads 204,005
“Wordpress Automatic upgrade” and “Sidebar Widgets” are the classics which are no longer needed as they are a part of WordPress now.
From the top 18 plugins I currently only use Google XML Sitemaps, WP Super Cache and Contact Form 7 on my blog. All in one SEO Pack and Google Analytics are also very important but my Thesis theme has these functions built-in.
What do you think about the wisdom of the crowds in case of WordPress plugins? Are these the best plugins? Do you still use any of them?
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Note: As for me, I use 9 of these plugins, including NextGEN Gallery, All-in-one SEO, WP-SuperCache and Sociable. In addition to the above list, I also use cforms II plugin for creating feedback forms.
Comparing Joomla and Drupal May 21, 2008
Posted by rsentana in : blogging, computer, internet , 6commentsAfter installing Wordpress, I am now trying to install a portal to my main site. Though I haven’t figured out what the content will be, I have installed and tried some of the available Content Management System (CMS) for my portal. Hence, the title of this blog post.
Of course there are more than just Joomla and Drupal (read: droople) in the CMS arena, such as Oracle BEA Weblogic, IBM Websphere, etc. I quickly dismiss them not just because they are not free, but more importantly because they are java-based portals. I learned from my past experience that Java-based portal is relatively slower than PHP-based portal. Therefore, Joomla & Drupal fits the requirement nicely since they are PHP-based.
In addition, there are many other “CMS” that are very niche in their target area such as Wordpress (which I’m using for my blog site) and OScommerce for e-commerce use. They are very focused in their own niche areas, so it would be quite a tedious job (though not impossible) to use Wordpress for e-commerce purposes, as well as OScommerce for blogging tool. Thus, I’d like to focus on the most commonly used CMS in the Open Source area: Joomla and Drupal.
(Note: Ideally, I should have include Plone as the third alternative; however, I currently don’t have the luxury to install and learn its configuration system as well as understanding python programming.)
Criteria
In my main portal site, I have given both system a try (Joomla 1.5 and Drupal 6.2), and after some consideration, I finally chose Drupal. Here are my criteria when selecting the portal system:
- Installation – must be very straight forward and supported by Fantastico script
- Usability – Ease-of-use for non-programmer administrator / content creators
- Flexibility Ability to add plugins / modules for enhanced functionality
- Upgradeability – Information of upgrades of the system & add-on modules/plugins
- Support – Exhausted FAQs and extensive community support system
From my point of view, I have to admit that both system are relatively easy to install, very flexible in terms of the available plug-ins / modules / themes, and has a lot of support from the number of contributors worldwide. Both system are relatively easy to learn as well, so there is no steep learning curve in managing both system.
Why I choose Drupal
The following are my reasons that draws me toward Drupal, and though these are relatively moot, I find these to be in line with my personal preference.
1. Simpler GUI
Joomla’s GUI is very well made, but Drupal makes administrating the portal to be as simple as it can be without all the icon clutters. With the latest release, Plugins and Settings are located at the top right link, while the content management is set in the top left link. This makes the hierarchy clearer and if one wants to install a new plugin or set the options, they will know where to go easily.
2. Modules / Components / Mambots v. Plugin
In Joomla, I have to figure out the differences between a component. modules, and a bot. In Drupal, everything is in the plugin directory. Installing the plugin is just a matter of storing the files under the plugin directory and activating it in the plugin screen. Joomla, while they allows installing the add-ons from the web, requires me to understand the differences between those three terminologies and install it accordingly.
3. PHP editor
Not sure whether the latest Joomla allows the admin user to change the code straight from the web, but Drupal allows that. It makes configuring and troubleshooting a plugin or theme simpler in Drupal than in Joomla. Besides, I can see how each Drupal contributors make their PHP codes and learn from them.
Drupal downside
One major thing that bugs me is that plugins for Drupal 5.x will not work in Drupal 6.x. This makes some great plugins to be unavailable in my latest Drupal installation, such as ecommerce and flash-gallery. I sincerely hope the programmer will port their codes into the latest Drupal version for better functionality.
From the marketing point of view, I have to give Joomla a thumbs-up. They are very good in projecting Joomla as one of the “most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet”, while Drupal seems not only avoid competing with Joomla straight but almost totally put aside any marketing effort. Drupal is only focusing doing what it does best in becoming a better and simpler CMS system, and maybe it is their major strength not to be taken too much into the marketing fight. Besides, word-of-mouth is the best marketing strategy, and it is free.
UPDATE (04/09):
There was a report done a year earlier by OpenConcept in canada on this comparison, and their finding is here. Of course, that was done with older versions of Joomla and Drupal, so the result may have changed.
