I can’t say I recommend all these plugins, or that I’ve installed them all. This list is merely a group of plugins that have caught my eye for their reported/reputed utility. I make no claims that they work, they they’re benign, or that they won’t wreck your server and destroy your life.

If you care about SEO, utility and elegance, you might find this list useful. I looked at the descriptions of well over 500 plugins to compile this list.

The comments above each link are mine.

note thingy sticky note-y thingy
http://www.maxpower.ca/wordpress-plugin-dash-note/2006/05/02/

fingerprint rss tool
http://www.maxpower.ca

rss feed copyright set-n-forget
http://blog.taragana.com

make a different index page
http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/home-page-control/

add feeds to pages
http://ink.bur.st/wordpress-plugins#kqf

live spellchecker
http://www.lab4games.net

avatars
http://bluesome.net/post/2005/08/07/44/

whisper comment
http://lordchaos.dominatus.net/wordpress-plugin-whisper/

adv comment page
http://green-beast.com/seabeast/?page_id=65

user online
http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/wp-useronline

event calendar
http://blog.firetree.net/wp-content/plugins/eventcalendar31.zip

meta tag perfection
http://boakes.org/autometa/
http://www.neato.co.nz/ultimate-tag-warrior/
http://vapourtrails.ca/wp-keywords
http://www.maxpower.ca/wordpress-plugin-tags-in-the-head/2006/04/17/ works with both Ultimate and Jerome’s

custom comment tag text
http://rhymedcode.net/projects/custom-comment-text/

custom posting field
http://rhymedcode.net/projects/custom-field-gui
use with
http://www.coffee2code.com/archives/2004/06/30/plugin-get-custom/

related post cloud
http://sw-guide.de/wordpress/related-posts-for-jeromes-keywords-plugin/
http://www.leetcode.net/keycloud-widgets

track backlinks via MSN
http://gdymov.com/inbound-links-backlinks-wordpress-plugin/

poll
http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/wp-polls

rss feed publisher (on the blog)
http://www.soderlind.no/archives/2004/11/08/aggrss-an-rss-aggregator/

email address non-harvester
http://guff.szub.net/2005/08/23/email-immunizer/

link attribute inserter
http://guff.szub.net/2005/01/27/add-link-attribute/

break out of frames
http://www.g-loaded.eu/2006/01/05/break-out-of-frames-wordpress-plugin/

page title optimizer
http://elasticdog.com/2004/09/optimal-title/

ecommerce checkout
http://www.instinct.co.nz/?p=16

external link indication
http://sw-guide.de/wordpress/link-indication-plugin/

related posts
http://www.semiologic.com/software/extract-terms/

apple trailers
http://www.sosuechtig.de/wordpress-widgets/

wp sidebar fades
http://chunkymoon.com/wordpress/?p=1

wet floor reflections
http://www.siuyee.com/projects/wp-wetfloor/

relative date
http://www.lesterchan.net/others/downloads.php?id=21

turns predefined keywords into links
http://www.rockschtar.de/wp-plugin-sh-autolink/

link auto shortener
http://rudd-o.com/projects/wp-autolink/

sell t-shirts. store’s agreement looks ok.
http://blog.tassoman.com/wordpress-plugins/spreadshop/

add Digg button
http://codehack.biz/wordpress/diggclick/

amazon product organizer
http://www.sozu.co.uk/software/amm/

friends RSS aggregator
http://adam.404.org/projects/friends-rss/

static home page setter
http://www.semiologic.com/software/static-front/

improved include page
http://www.vtardia.com/blog/improved-include-page/

JS toggle boxes, with JS cookies!
http://aranea.zuavra.net/index.php/19/

possibly prevents rewriting post text
http://vapourtrails.ca/wp-preformatted

page ordering
http://www.geekyweekly.com/mypageorder

intouch custom contact form
http://adahas.com/work/intouch/

custom navigation menus (for applying different styles and highlighting) for pages
http://adahas.com/work/navigo/

embed Flash into page
http://kimili.com/plugins/kml_flashembed