Aaron D. Campbell

<p>There is a <a href="http://bluedogwebservices.com/problem-related-post-plugins/" rel="nofollow ugc">problem<br />
with related posts plugins</a>, and Efficient Related Posts is fixing that by<br />
approaching the problem from a different direction and offering a very different<br />
solution.</p>
<p>Basically, current related post plugins build the list of related posts on the<br />
fly when the user needs to view it.  Since blogs tend to be viewed far more<br />
often than they are updated (often hundreds of times more often), these queries<br />
are run way more times than they need to be.  This not only wastes CPU cycles,<br />
but if the queries are slow (which they will be if you have 1000s of posts and<br />
tags) then the user gets a poor experience from slow page loads.</p>
<p>Efficient Related Posts moves all this effort into the admin section, finding<br />
related posts when a post is saved rather than when the user views it.  The<br />
advantage is that if the query is slow it happens less often and the post writer<br />
is the one that waits rather than the user (which I think is WAY better).</p>
<p>There are limitations.  For example, since the related posts are stored as post<br />
meta data, we only store a certain number of them (10 by default, but you can<br />
set it to whatever you want).  This means that if you decide you need to display<br />
more than 10, you need to have the plugin re-process all posts.  I generally<br />
display up to 5 related posts, but store 10 just in case I decide to display<br />
more in some areas.  Also, since the related posts are calculated when a post is<br />
saved, manually adding a tag through the database will have no effect on the<br />
related posts, although I recommend not doing that anyway.</p>


Efficient Related Posts

A related posts plugin that works quickly even with thousands of posts and tags.  Can be added automatically to the end of posts.

alphasis

<p>This Plugin will display the related posts list via categories, tags and custom taxonomies.<br />
It can automatically display the related posts list after the content of any single post of selected post types by options.<br />
There are many options for the display, order, exclusion and post-type selection.<br />
This plugin works when viewing a post of selected post types by options.<br />
This plugin requires jQuery 1.6 or higher.</p>
<h4>Official Page</h4>
<ul>
<li>Plugin’s Official Page : <a href="http://alphasis.info/developments/wordpress-plugins/related-posts-via-taxonomies/" title="Plugin's Official Page in English" rel="nofollow ugc">English</a> / <a href="http://alphasis.info/kaihatu/wordpress-plugins/related-posts-via-taxonomies/" title="Plugin's Official Page in Japanese" rel="nofollow ugc">Japanese</a></li>
<li>Author’s Website : <a href="http://alphasis.info/" title="alphasis.info" rel="nofollow ugc">alphasis.info</a> (Japanese) » <a href="http://alphasis.info/developments/wordpress-plugins/" title="WordPress Plugins" rel="nofollow ugc">WordPress Plugins</a> (English)</li>
</ul>
<h4>Related Posts via Taxonomies – Options</h4>
<p>‘Settings’ » ‘Related Posts via Taxonomies’</p>
<h4>Display</h4>
<ul>
<li>Auto display
<ul>
<li>This option automatically displays related posts after the content on the single post page.</li>
<li>If this option is off, you will need to manually insert <code>display_related_posts_via_taxonomies()</code> into your theme files.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Maximum number of related posts
<ul>
<li>If you do not enter anything: 10</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Related posts title
<ul>
<li>For example: Related Posts</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Before related posts title and related posts
<ul>
<li>For example: <code><div id="related-posts-via-taxonomies"></code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>After related posts title and related posts
<ul>
<li>For example: <code></div></code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Before related posts title
<ul>
<li>For example: <code><h2 id="related-posts-via-taxonomies-title"></code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>After related posts title
<ul>
<li>For example: <code></h2></code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Before related posts
<ul>
<li>For example: <code><ul id="related-posts-via-taxonomies-list"></code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>After related posts
<ul>
<li>For example: <code></ul></code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Before each related post
<ul>
<li>For example: <code><li class="related-posts-via-taxonomies-item"></code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>After each related post
<ul>
<li>For example: <code></li></code></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4>Order</h4>
<ul>
<li>Order By
<ul>
<li>Related Scores : High  ( Speedy ) </li>
<li>Related Scores : High / Date Published : New ( Default setting )</li>
<li>Related Scores : High / Date Published : Old</li>
<li>Related Scores : Low / Date Published : New</li>
<li>Related Scores : Low / Date Published : Old</li>
<li>Related Scores : High / Date Modified : New</li>
<li>Related Scores : High / Date Modified : Old</li>
<li>Related Scores : Low / Date Modified : New</li>
<li>Related Scores : Low / Date Modified : Old</li>
<li>Date Published : New</li>
<li>Date Published : Old</li>
<li>Date Modified : New</li>
<li>Date Modified : Old</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4>Exclude</h4>
<ul>
<li>Exclude (Posts)
<ul>
<li>The IDs of any posts you want to exclude, separated by commas.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Exclude (Categories)
<ul>
<li>Select checkboxes of any categories you want to exclude.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Exclude (Tags)
<ul>
<li>Select checkboxes of any tags you want to exclude.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Exclude (Custom taxonomy)
<ul>
<li>Select checkboxes of any custom taxonomy items you want to exclude.</li>
<li>Displays checkboxes of them when there is any custom taxonomy items.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4>Post types</h4>
<ul>
<li>Select checkboxes of any post types you want to include in the list of Related Posts and display the list.</li>
<li>Displays checkboxes of them when there is any custom post types.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Localization</h4>
<ul>
<li>Japanese (ja) – <a href="http://alphasis.info/" title="alphasis.info" rel="nofollow ugc">alphasis</a> (plugin author)</li>
<li>Current release supports English and Japanese.</li>
</ul>


Efficient Related Posts vs Related Posts via Taxonomies