The Microsoft patterns & practices team has recently released Developing Applications for SharePoint 2010 Guidance.

What's in Developing Applications for SharePoint 2010?

Click here to download the guidance

One of the cool aspects of working at Microsoft is the opportunity to work on some fantastic projects.  It’s truly been a pleasure working on some great internet facing SharePoint websites that showcase the platform’s ability to service some of the internet’s most demanding websites and show it’s effectiveness as a web content management platform. 

Today, the newly redesigned/re-architected Recovery.gov website that’s running completely on SharePoint Server 2007 was launched!

Recovery.gov is a government website designed to provide transparency in to how stimulus funds provided by the federal government are being allocated and spent on various stimulus related projects across the US.  On February 13, 2009, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, who’s main goals are to:

1. Create and save jobs
2. Spur economic activity and invest in long-term economic growth
3. Foster unprecedented levels of accountability and transparency in government spending

To that end, SharePoint Server 2007 was chosen as the platform to deliver on the requirements for the Recovery.gov site and will deliver compelling features and functionality that provides deep insight into how stimulus funds are being spent.  Head on over to Recovery.gov and check it out!

The Best Practices Resource Center for SharePoint Server 2007 has been recently launched on our TechNet site.  The intent of the site is to provide a resource for guidance and best practices in efforts to avoid common pitfalls and keep your Office SharePoint Server 2007 environment available and performing well.  The best practices cited within the resource center is based on real-world experience from Microsoft Consulting Services and the SharePoint Product Team.

Version 1.4 of the SharePoint Server 2007 SDK and the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK has been released.

What's new in the 1.4 release of the SharePoint Server SDK?

• Installation enhancements: You now have a choice of installation path when you’re installing the SDK. Browse to your preferred folder during setup. The default installation path for the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server SDK is <%Program Files%>\2007 Office System Developer Resources.
• Start menu navigation: This release features a new Start menu shortcut for quick access to documentation (compiled HTML Help, or CHM for short) files and the Welcome Guide (ReadMe.htm), which is a landing page with links to all the tools and samples. In Windows Server 2003, click Start, Programs, 2007 Microsoft Office System Developer Resources, Office SharePoint Server 2007 SDK to open: MOSS 2007 Technical Articles and Visual How-Tos, Office Forms Server SDK Documentation, Office SharePoint Server SDK Documentation, Welcome Guide, Windows SharePoint Services SDK Documentation. In Windows Vista, click the Windows Vista Start button, All Programs, 2007 Microsoft Office System Developer Resources, Office SharePoint Server 2007 SDK to open: MOSS 2007 Technical Articles and Visual How-Tos, Office Forms Server SDK Documentation, Office SharePoint Server SDK Documentation, Welcome Guide, Windows SharePoint Services SDK Documentation.
• Offline experience improvements: All of the technical articles, visual how-to articles, and book excerpts are now packaged—plus the Excel Services and Excel 2007 Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 Job Submission Developer Guide—into one searchable CHM file. Browse offline for content published on MSDN out-of-band with the SDK. (Known issue: Several links in the MOSSSDK_TechArticles.chm and WSSSDK_TechArticles.chm do not work in a strictly offline scenario. Also, WMV file screencasts or downloads associated with articles are not packaged in the CHM, to keep the download size manageable. Workaround: Browse to the content on MSDN online; for ease-of-use, the CHM file table of contents is the same as the MSDN Library table of contents.
• New tools and samples.  

What's new in the 1.4 release of the WSS 3.0 SDK?

• Expanded documentation of backup and restore features.  This release contains greatly expanded documentation of backup and restore features, including a new top-level node, "Backing Up and Restoring." The node includes twelve articles, including "Overview of Backing Up and Restoring Data in Windows SharePoint Services," and four new "How To" topics.
• Complete documentation of Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.Backup.  Object model reference documentation in the Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.Backup namespace is complete, and code samples are provided for all critical types and members.
• New documentation of the administrative object model.  A new section, "The Administrative Object Model of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0," contains six new articles, and the "Administration" section has a new, extended code sample.
• Revised Web Part documentation.  The section that provides conceptual documentation of Web Parts has been completely restructured, and two walkthrough topics have been significantly revised and rewritten.
• More migration support.  A new section, "Selective Content Migration," contains three articles to support selective migration strategies. Additionally, additions and revisions have been made to existing topics in the "Content Migration Overview" section, and a large number of API reference topics that support migration and deployment scenarios have been completed in the SharePoint.Deployment namespace.
• Expanded and updated reference documentation.  You can find enhanced documentation of types and members in the SharePoint.Workflow and SharePoint.WorkflowActions namespaces, the People Web service, and three ActiveX controls.

An excellent whitepaper is available on our downloads site that provides guidance on implementing solutions on top of SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.  A breakdown of the sections is cited below:

• Chapter I - Document Goals
• Chapter II - Implementation Scenarios
• Chapter III - Implementation Environments
• Chapter IV - Implementation Activities
• Chapter V - Deployment Methods
• Chapter VI - Tools for the Job
• Chapter VII - Implementation Project Plan and Team
• Chapter VIII - Implementation Worksheet
• Chapter IX - Hotfixes
• Chapter X - Testing
• Chapter XI - Summary
• Chapter XII - Glossary
• Chapter XIII - References
• Virtualization
• SDKs and Centers
• Dev Tools
• Packaging Tools
• SOLUTION Framework
• Bin or Global Assembly Cache
• Features
• Authoring and customization
• Content Deployment / Migration
• Team Development
• Testing, Source Control and MSF
• Patterns and Practices
• Chapter XIV - Credits and Thanks To

Definitely worth the download.

Microsoft recently announced the release of a new search solution, based on SharePoint Products & Technologies called Microsoft Search Server 2008.  On the Microsot Enterprise Search Team Blog, the search team unveils the latest product as a part of the SharePoint family that provides an optimized search solution for your organizations business data.  There are two versions of this product, a full Server version and Search Server 2008 Express, which you can download now as a release candidate.

You can view a demo of Search Server Express here.  The full version is not yet available, however, the featureset between Search Server 2008 and Search Server Express 2008 is very similar therefore allowing you to get a flavor of what the full server version will be like by evaluating the express edition.