lupka

This plugin allows you to create a widget that will display the title/date/excerpt from random posts in a specified(or open-ended) date range. It can also be used outside of a widget to create custom loops of random posts within a date range. The following can be specified:
<ul>
<li>Number of posts to display</li>
<li>Whether or not to show dates</li>
<li>Whether or not to show excerpts</li>
<li>Excerpt length (number of words)</li>
<li>Start date and End date of posts to randomize</li>
<li>Whether or not to always use current date as end. (Allows you to include new posts without editing settings every day)</li>
<li>Option to use relative time instead (To chose from random posts from last week, year, etc.)</li>
<li>Category to choose posts from. (Example: Random posts from sports category in the past week. This is the original reason I needed a plugin like this. Comes in handy for the newspaper site I run.)</li>
</ul>
Please contact me if you run into any issues, either via email (lupka31@gmail.com) or Twitter (http://twitter.com/lupka) 
For latest FAQs/info visit: http://alexchalupka.com/projects/wordpress/random-posts-widget/

Random Posts Within Date Range Widget

Widget that displays the title(w/ link), date(optional), and excerpt(optional) of random posts within a selected date range.

Xavi Ivars

XV Random Quotes helps you collect and display random quotes everywhere on your blog. The plugin is so flexible that it can be used to display random words of all sorts: taglines, “leave a response” messages, footer or header sections etc.
It’s based on the work of previous (abandoned) plugins: Stray Quotes Z, which was based on top of Stray Quotes, which was based on top of ZombieRobot’s Random Quotes.
The main features:
<ul>
<li>As many widgets as you need, each with its individual set of options, to display one or more quotes from all or some categories, randomly or in sequence, with or without AJAX, etc.</li>
<li>AJAX automation so a reader of the blog can get another quote without reloading the page.</li>
<li>Optional automatic rotation of the quotes within a given interval of seconds.</li>
<li>Multiuser ready (contributors to the blog can access a limited version of the plugin, adding and managing their own sets of quotes)</li>
<li>Shortcodes that can be used to add one quote or series of quotes to your posts and pages. The shortcodes come with a set of individual options as well and, if needed, they can be extended to apply everywhere on the blog, allowing random words for the tagline, the category names, the post titles etc.</li>
<li>Template tags to add one or more quotes — random words in general — directly to the template pages. Template tags support many variables as well.</li>
<li>A Settings page to customize the appearance of the quotes with little or no knowledge of HTML.</li>
<li>A easy to use management page where even thousands of quotes can be handled easily, with bulk actions to change category, delete quotes and toggle visibility of many quotes at a time.</li>
<li>A bookmarklet to create quotes on the fly as you browse the web and find text worth quoting.</li>
<li>A help page where everything you need to know is explained.</li>
</ul>
See <a href="http://xavi.ivars.me/" rel="nofollow ugc">more cool things you can do with XV Random Quotes</a>.
<h3>Credits</h3>
<ul>
<li>For main development of Stray Quotes, <a href="http://unalignedcode.wordpress.com/my-wordpress-plugins/stray-random-quotes/" rel="nofollow ugc">Ico</a></li>
<li>For Multi-widget functionality, <a href="http://wp.gdragon.info/2008/07/06/create-multi-instances-widget/" rel="nofollow ugc">Millian’s tutorial</a></li>
<li>For help in developing user-end AJAX functionality, <a href="http://www.matrixagents.org" rel="nofollow ugc">AgentSmith</a></li>
<li>For search functionality and bugfixing, <a href="http://www.zeyalabs.ch/posts/2010/stray-quotes-z/" rel="nofollow ugc">Sergey Sirotkin</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Localization</h3>
<ul>
<li>German, thanks to Markus Griesbach</li>
<li>Chinese, thanks to WGMking</li>
<li>Croatian, thanks to <a href="http://www.atrium.hr/" rel="nofollow ugc">Rajic</a></li>
<li>Danish, thanks to <a href="http://wordpress.blogos.dk/" rel="nofollow ugc">Georg</a></li>
</ul>
Actually, these translations are not updated to the latest version. 
I am looking for new localizers, all languages welcome!
Please note: the best way to submit new or updated translations is to send me a direct link to the localization files in <a href="http://xavi.ivars.me/contacta/" rel="nofollow ugc">the contact page</a> of my website. This way the files are made available to the users sooner, and without waiting for a new release.
Please note: If you want to create a localized copy of XV Random Quotes, consider skipping the help page and translate the rest. This will save you quite some time. The help page has a lot of text.
<h3>Known Issues</h3>
<ul>
<li>Search keyword is reset when bulk actions are executed or display criteria is changed.</li>
<li>International button labels (search, reset) are not implemented.</li>
</ul>

XV Random Quotes

Displays and rotates quotes and expressions anywhere on your blog. Easy to customize and manage. Multiuser-powered. Ajax enabled.

Random Posts Within Date Range Widget vs XV Random Quotes