Developers are always releasing new plugins for Wordpress.  As the blogging platform is “alive”, it’s always interesting to see what is hitting the community.  Here are some of the newest, most promising, plugins I’ve found in the last few days.

AutoSuggest Searches

You know how you go to Google and start typing in the search box and suggestions drop down, allowing you to pick from a list of potential results?  Bingo. That is exactly what you have here for your site.  

WordPress Video Solution Framework

Developed by Automattic, the group behind Wordpress, this is a solid release.  This plugin provides a video framework, including a transcoder and  and administration screen.  Note that a significant amount of configuration is required, so if you are not a “technical” person you may want to stay way

Google Custom Search Plugin for Wordpress

Now this is promising (and MUCH needed).  One reason I do not have a search function on the site is due to the poor performance of the built-in search feature.  Wordpress is a blog platform, not a search platform, so why would the development team spend huge amounts of time developing search functionality? Well, this plugin removes the old search and utilizes Google to provide search results to your readers!

I haven’t tested any of these extensions as of yet, so be warned, you may be getting a product that is less than perfect.  From what I’ve see and read, however, they really look to have promise.

Much like the Wordpress templates and plugins sites there a large number of Wordpress News websites available.  Frankly, most of them are spam sites simply attempting to capitalize on the brand name.  People throw up a blog, include AdSense, and link to a bunch of other sites that simply mentioned the term Wordpress in the hopes of having search engine traffic blindly clicking on their ads.

Let’s cut through the junk – here are the Top 4 Wordpress News Sources I utilize.

Planet Wordpress

This is the defacto source of news for all things Wordpress, but it’s not a blog – it’s a blog aggregator.  It collects feeds from publishers around the web and centralize all the information into one giant feed of nothing but the highest quality information.

Weblog Tools Collection

Original content, dedicated writing staff, and additional blogging information makes Weblog Tools Collection a must see on a daily basis.  They usually have some of the freshest news available.   

Wordpress Publishers Blog

Another site run by the Automattic crew – their focus is on making sure publishers get the most out of the Wordpress experience.  One cool thing they do is highlight unique sites that utilize Wordpress.  

WordCast PodCast

Let’s face it, sometimes you are just lazy.  You don’t want to read.  There is nothing wrong if it, I get you, I get the same way.  A weekly podcast informs you of the latest plugins, themes and news related to Wordpress.

Add the sites to your reader, check them daily and enjoy.