Nick Momrik

Retrieves a list of the most recent posts.
<h3>Configuration</h3>
You may pass parameters when calling the function to configure some of the options. 
Example: <code>mdv_recent_posts(10, '', ' ', true, 5, false, false)</code>
The parameters: 
$no_posts – sets the number of recent posts to display 
$before – text to be displayed before the link to the recent post 
$after – text to be displayed after the link to the recent post 
$hide_pass_post – whether or not to display password protected posts 
$skip_posts – allows skipping of a number of posts before showing the number of posts specified with the $no_posts parameter 
$show_excerpts – allows the post excerpt to be output after the post title 
$include_pages – allows recent pages to be show with recent posts
<h3>Version History</h3>
1.1.2 – Added a space before rel=”bookmark” 
1.1.3 – Fix the space for real. Props Sandro Bonazzola 
1.2 – Use the esc_* functions and cleanup coding standards

WP Chill

CPO Widgets is a WordPress plugin that provides you with an number of essential widgets for any website. They give you additional functionality to easily display more varied content in your sidebars, such as images or tweets.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/ascendant/" rel="ugc">Ascendant</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/affluent/" rel="ugc">Affluent</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/allegiant/" rel="ugc">Allegiant</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/antreas/" rel="ugc">Antreas</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/transcend/" rel="ugc">Transcend</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/intuition/" rel="ugc">Intuition</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/illustrious/" rel="ugc">Illustrious</a></li>
</ul>
This plugin adds the following available widgets:
Recent Posts – A more powerful version of the default recent posts widget provided by WordPress. This widget allows you to display a thumbnail of each post and also to choose which post type to display.
Ad Space – Easily insert images without having to resort to writing HTML in a text widget. You can also link the image or add your own advertising code.
Social Profiles – Add links to your preferred social profiles, being able to choose from a long list of available social networks.
Recent Tweets – Display your latest tweets from any Twitter account. This widgets provides support for the Twitter API 1.1.
Flickr Images – Show your latest images from a Flickr account right into your sidebar, and linking to your Flickr gallery.
Author Badge – Display the profile of a specific user, showing the name, image, and profile description.
<h3>Included Widgets</h3>
<ul>
<li>Recent Posts</li>
<li>Image Banner widget</li>
<li>Social Profiles widget</li>
<li>Recent Tweets widget</li>
<li>Flickr Images widget</li>
<li>Author Badge widget</li>
</ul>

CPO Widgets

Add essential functionality to your WordPress sidebars with a set of useful widgets.

Recent Posts vs CPO Widgets