Movable Type 4.0's only been out three weeks, and we've seen dozens of poweful new plugins for the platform, with new ones popping up every day. As someone who first installed Movable Type as a beta six years ago (!), I've never seen a time where more compelling or just plain fun plugins have been launched in such a short period of time.

Because a lot of us have been busy uploading the new "Works With MT4" plugins to our blogs, it's probably worth taking a look to see what all the plugin developers in our community have been up to. And of course, the vast majority of older plugins still work with MT4 as well -- these are just some of the ones that show of MT4's features the best. Check 'em out:

Never Get Dash-Bored

• Google AdSense Widget: David Raynes lets you keep an eye on the bottom line from your MT4 dashboard, showing your recent earnings information from Google's AdSense service.
• Google Analytics Widget: One of the breakout additions for MT4, this popular plugin lets you see your daily traffic right on MT4's dashboard, with David Raynes making smart use of the built-in charting functions in the platform.
• FeedBurner Widget: Just like his Google Analytics and AdSense Widgets, David Raynes show you the number of people subscribed to your site's XML feed, letting you keep tabs on a key metric of success.
  
• Feeds Widget: This one's killer -- Yuji Takayama made it easy to subscribe to any XML feed right in your MT dashboard, and then create content right from the items in that feed. Indispensable for inspiration for your entries.
• Dashboard Twitter: Fumiaki Yoshimatu gives Twitter users exactly what they're looking for: The ability to update your Twitter status and see your friends' updates, right from the MT Dashboard.

Getting the Word Out

• Fast Search: Mark Carey adds a lightning-fast dynamic search to augment MT's built-in search features.
  
• MT-Twitter: Brandon Fuller's made a perfect plugin for people who use MT to blog and also use Twitter to connect to friends -- each time you create an entry, MT-Twitter lets your Twitter friends know about it.
• Sort Categories and Folders: Tired of being constrained by the alphabet? Hajime Fujimoto has made an elegant interface that lets you sort your categories and folders in whatever order you damn well please.
• PostVox: If you're using MT's sister service Vox, you might want to make sure your posts on your MT blog show up there as well -- with PostVox, it's just a checkbox away.
• MotionBased: Connect your MT blog to this popular geotracking community, using Brandon Fuller's clever plugin.
  

Getting the Words In

• Blogger Importer: Takatsugu Shigeta makes it easier than ever for Blogger users to bring their entries into MT4. No need to mess with import or export files -- just log in to your Blogger account and this plugin does the rest.
• Entry Post: Mark Carey has made it easy for your site's community to create new entries on your blog, even giving you the power to customize the fields they use to create entries.
  
• Refeed: Ben Trott has made a small but slick plugin that could well be called Movable Pipes: Give it a list of feeds, and it'll turn them into a stream of entries on your blog.
  

Cool For Comments

• Customized Sign In Templates: Mark Carey takes MT4's customization to the next level, letting the sign-in screen for MT authors and commenters take on the look of your blog.
• AIM OpenID Plugin: With nearly 90 million users, AOL and AIM provide an enormous base of existing user identities. With Minh Nguyá»…n's plugin, they won't even need to make a new password to sign in on your site.
• WordPress.com OpenID Plugin: Byrne Reese's plugin lets anyone using wordpress.com sign in on your MT blog, using the power of OpenID.
• Comment Subscribe: Robert Synnott has made it dead simple for your blog's readers to subscribe by email to any conversation in your comments just by checking a box.
• This Is Good: Yuji Takayama brings one of our favorite features from MT's sister service Vox to your blog. Your commenters can show some love for your posts just by checking a box.
• Quote: Make it easy for your commenters to excerpt earlier parts of the conversation using Reed Cartwright's handy plugin.
  

Tip Top Templates

• Snip It: Arvind Satyanarayan shows off MT4's template snippet feature with a plugin that automatically inserts custom snippets of code into your templates, which you can customize and define at will.
• Template Shelf: Arvind Satyanarayan's plugin gives you a handy way to switch between templates that you're editing, indispensable if you're doing serious template hacking.
  
• Template Installer: Mark Carey's clever work makes it a snap to install new templates on your blog, even letting you share templates that others have created.
• Template Exporter: The complement to Template Installer, Mark Carey has made a simple way to export your templates for reuse on another blog, or even on another MT install entirely.
  
• Fiscal Yearly Archives: One of the less-heralded features of MT4 is its extensible archiving system. Hirotaka Ogawa shows it off beautifully with Fiscal Yearly Archives, which provides exactly what you'd think.
• Clean Sweep: Byrne Reese has made it dead simple to find and fix 404 Not Found errors on your site, with no fuss.
• Favicon Manager: Akira Sawada has a slick plugin that gives you specify the miniature icon that browsers use to signify your site.

MT UI OK 4U?

• Bookmarks: Kevin Shay made the first indispensable plugin for MT4, a simple way of bookmarking your most useful screens in the MT system.
• New Entry Template: Patrick Benny automates some of the drudgery if you find yourself writing similar entries frequently; This plugin lets you define a template that automatically appears when you need it.
  
• Dynamic Menus: Mark Carey does it again with a much-requested tweak to MT4's UI -- you never have to see menu items that are disabled.
• Hot Date: Dan Wolfgang has the best-named plugin, which is also extremely convenient, letting you tweak the dates on your entries with a simple user interface.
  
• Navigation Breadcrumbs: Mark Carey adds a feature that might appease those homesick for older versions of Movable Type: A breadcrumb trail showing where you are in the application.
  
• Movable Type 4 Video Plugin: Chad Everett worked with Fliqz to create a straightforward plugin to integrate their interesting video service directly into your MT posting screen.

These are just some of the dozens of astounding new range of plugins available for MT4. We've heard word of many more on the way, but by the time you've picked a few of these and tried them out, you'll be able to check back in and see what's new. In the meantime, enjoy the breadth of new features that are only available for your Movable Type 4-powered site.