Today’s counter says over 6 million downloads, and increasing really fast.

But that’s not all; WordPress.org also announced a few days ago that the plugin directory already has over 100 million downloads. Can you top that?

• WordPress 3.0.1 Released – August 1, 2010
• Facebook is the most used URL in Twitter Profiles – December 5, 2010
• Protect your Blog with VaultPress – April 11, 2010
• Tumblr Is Growing Fast: Perfect Tool for Quick Blogging – March 9, 2010
• Music Provider GrooveShark Wins Top CNET Award – May 29, 2009

WordPress 3.0 with over 6 Million Downloads originally appeared on: Crenk
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Top 5 Google Chrome plugins.

features makes it hard to break away. We’ve become so accustomed to customizing our experiences in Firefox that when we try other browsers we naturally try to do things that we did in Firefox. Obviously we’re quick to realize that we’re in another browser, and not the Firefox we remember, and naturally we quickly close out and go back to the browser we’re so familiar with.

Now with Chrome on the scene there are noticeable speed differences which make Chrome a more appealing browser in terms of search, but can we mimic the same functionality. The answer is yes and no. Yes in that there are plugins for Chrome that are useful, but also no because these plugins are slowly making their way to users.

But if you’re on Chrome and loving the experience like I am, then here are five plugins that will get you started on the right foot.

AdBlock

The familiar plugin is just as powerful as it is on Firefox. Block unecessary pop-ups, be warned if something wants to load on your page and never worry about surfing the net again. It takes a little doing, but you can get instructions on how to get those ads blocked here.

GreaseMetal

If you’ve installed Grease Monkey on your Firefox browser you know just how useful those little scripts can be in customizing your overall experience. Well Chrome users can now integrate this functionality very easily by just following these easy steps.

Download YouTube Videos

Last night the team at Crenk gathered around to share some of the top video downloaders for Firefox, so it was a natural that one of the plugins today would be a natural fit for Chrome. To gain the same experience of capturing your favorite videos, be sure to install this Chrome video download plugin and give it a try. Some code customization is required.

Bookmarking Plugins

If you’re looking to bookmark your findings on Digg, StumbleUpon or Delicious straight from your browser, then be sure to take a look at the plugins and how you can once again make them a vital part of your search experience.

Twitter Plugin

A Twitter plugin is probably one of the most requested additions to the browser. Until recently there were few options, but now Chrome can boast it’s own Twitter plugin to allow you to update and catch up on updates without leaving your browser window.

So these are some of the most highly requested plugins. It’s not necessarily as easy as with Firefox, as some customization is required, but for those of us savvy enough to experiment with our browsers, the end goal could be big payoffs!

• Google Release Google Chrome 11 for Download – April 29, 2011
• Google Flattens Their Chrome Logo – March 16, 2011
• Improve your Typing with Typing Speed Monitor – October 24, 2010
• Flock Changing Out Firefox Framework for Chrome – June 16, 2010
• Google Chrome browser 1 week later – September 10, 2008

Top 5 Plugins for Google Chrome originally appeared on: Crenk
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Firefox is home to many browser plugins.

Firefox plugins are extremely useful. I’ve made the switch to Google Chrome as an experiment to see if I can live without the plugins, but I find myself opening up a second browser from time to time because the plugins are just so useful. I for one love capturing video from sites for a variety of reasons. It’s not always easy, especially if it’s a Flash embed, you’ll more than likely end up having to remember the URL or bookmark it in order to come back to it.

Well for those of you who have not been made aware of some of Firefox’s handy plugins to pull videos from the sites you visit, Crenk is sharing the top four plugins we think you’ll want to use in 2010 to get the videos you need.

Flashgot

This is the mother load in terms of what you can capture on sites. Not only can you capture videos from the site, but you’ll also get photos, and audio files. It’s not always the most user friendly plugin out there, but when you need to mass download content from a site, this plugin is hard to beat. I include it only because it’s so versatile, but the rest are going to be straight video downloaders.

Ant.com Video Downloader

This unique downloader is one that I just plugged into my browser last week. What I like about it is that I’ve yet to come across a site it can’t strip the video from. I surf a lot of sites and not everything is posted on YouTube so we’re not sharing only YouTube plugins only because we figure our audience wants something a little more diverse. Ant.com definitely falls into the diverse category, not only offering you the ability to download but also the ability to instantly watch what you download in their built in video player. It’s a nice way to make sure you got what you wanted without having to dig into the folders on your system.

Flash Video Downloader

This no nonsense downloader claims to be able to download from 200+ sites. While other plugins simply mention that it’s rare when their plugin does not download videos, at least this one gives you a good idea of how many sites it’s been put up against. Most of us, being creatures of habit, will explore the same video sites over and over again, so once we know it works on those particular sites, we’re golden. The plugin pulls from sites such as YouTube, Dailymotion, Break, and more, but it also has the power to pull mp3′s, mp4′s, and flash games.

Download Flash and Video

A nice combo in this plugin. You get the ability to capture movies, but also capture that Flash video that was once unattainable due to the format. This particular plugin takes out the complexities by making it easy as one click. With one click you’re downloading content from popular video sites, but you also have the ability to capture games, much like the Flash Video Downloader above.

• Firefox:Tab Scope Previews you Tabs – May 4, 2011
• How to Add Speed Dial to FireFox – May 2, 2011
• Create Your Own Firefox and IE Toolbar – April 15, 2011
• Tweetdeck Now Available in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera – April 7, 2011
• How to Enable WebGL in Firefox 4 on Ubuntu – March 31, 2011

Top 4 Video Downloaders for FireFox originally appeared on: Crenk
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After 10 minutes of searching the web and three more failed map plugins, it dawned on me that this was really stupid, I should be able to use whatever HTML code I want in WordPress, including the iframe tag.  This is how I found the EmbedIt Plugin.  According to their site, EmbedIt is a,

simple plugin that allows you to embed any html code in a post, deciding precisely where to embed it, allowing you freedom of coding your html without being annoyed by the wysiwyg editor.

• embed Youtube videos into wordpress
• embed ustream into wordpress
• embed a custom Google Map into wordpress
• embed whatever html code into wordpress
• embed specific Adsense code into wordpress posts deciding WHERE it should go inside an article

The appeal to this plugin is that it will allow anyone to use any code they want without a funky plugin or breaking the framework in their WordPress theme.  EmbedIt utilizes the custom field in WordPress and is fully documented with screenshots on the official page.

My only complaint about this plugin is that you must submit a valid email address which grants the publisher of this plugin to send you an email now and again about new WP plugins he is working on.  I got the email instantly which has the link to download, but I still don’t like it.  I fully understand people take time to create these free plugins and never really get a lot of credit, but I think he’d be better off allowing free downloads and putting a Paypal donate button on his page instead of collecting email addresses.

• WordPress 3.0 with over 6 Million Downloads – July 12, 2010
• Registered Users Only – WordPress Plugin – August 7, 2008
• SimpleReach Slide: WordPress Simple Related Post Plugin – July 24, 2011
• Tumblr Passes WordPress.com in Blogs – June 17, 2011
• How to Add Google +1 Button to Your Website – June 6, 2011

EmbedIt WordPress Plugin Review originally appeared on: Crenk
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I set off to search for a plugin that would allow me to accomplish the goal of restricting access to the entire blog, forcing a registration.  After a few minutes I ended up on Viper007Bond’s site.  I’ve used his plugins before, so I knew they’d be top quality.  He wrote a custom plugin called Registered Users Only which, will redirect all users who aren’t logged in to the login form where they are shown a user-friendly message.

Perfect!  Upload the .php to the /plugin directory on your server, activate it and tick one box in the Options screen, you are done.  As admin to the blog, you create user accounts for those people you wish to give access to.  Since it uses the standard WordPress login screen and user database, you can simply add them as a Subscriber and once logged in, can see the entire site.

Total installation time is less than two minutes!

While the idea of putting a blog online is usually done so that someone will read it, this certain situation started to make a lot more sense to me.  WordPress offers so much more than just a blog, it’s turning into a CMS, and a tool to allow, in this case, his business to expand and grow internally.  The more I thought about it the more I realized that a private blog has many other uses to it.

Parents who want to setup a blog for their children, either from day 1 in their life or as they enter the tween stage probably won’t to protect who sees photos of their kids and what activities they do.

This plugin restricts ALL pages of the site, that is the only option.   This fits the goals of my friend and I think many other people.  Be aware, this does not protect your RSS feeds.  I would suggest deleting all RSS feeds from your WordPress install to fully protect your blog, if that is your goal.

Download from WordPress.org

• Windows Phone 7 Theme for Your WordPress Blog – May 31, 2011
• WordPress 3.0.1 Released – August 1, 2010
• WordPress 3.0 with over 6 Million Downloads – July 12, 2010
• Tumblr Is Growing Fast: Perfect Tool for Quick Blogging – March 9, 2010
• Backing up your blog with BlogBackupr – June 28, 2009

Registered Users Only – WordPress Plugin originally appeared on: Crenk
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