Aaron D. Campbell

Used to create a customizable rotating slideshow highlighting certain posts or 
pages. You can choose which posts or pages are featured by simply checking a 
checkbox on the write posts/page screen. The plugin uses the new post thumbnail 
functionality added in WordPress 2.9.
Requires PHP5.

Featured Content Showcase

Used to create a customizable rotating slideshow highlighting certain posts or pages.  Uses jQuery, which comes with WordPress (no conflicts).

wpoets

Amit Kumar Singh

pateln54

Featured Today allows you to show featured articles or latest articles from a category that you select. It is very simple to use, just place the ‘featured today widget’ in the right widget area, select the category you want to display. It will show featured article in the same way as featured articles are shown on the linkedin today page.
This plugin is brought to you by <a href="http://wpoets.com/" title="WordPress based development shop" rel="nofollow ugc">WPoets</a> development team.
Features
<ul>
<li>Displays as widget</li>
<li>You can set number of articles to show</li>
<li>You can select the category to use</li>
</ul>

Featured Today

Featured Today shows featured articles like it is shown on linkedin today.

Featured Content Showcase vs Featured Today