The Six Best Things You Didn't Know About SharePoint 2013

More than one Microsoft SharePoint consultant in our company has been working with SharePoint 2013 since the early beta, but these days anyone can take advantage of the newest release. However, our experts can help you learn more about the less obvious features of SP 2013. We're going to share some of the most useful details with you today.

1) Microsoft is introducing an improved release cycle.

 

For those unfamiliar with the term "release cycle," it simply indicates how often you'll see updates to the platform. SharePoint Online will have a 90-day release cycle. This means that you'll see six updates each year, which means that many of the exciting features (integration with Yammer, new search options, etc.) may be closer than you thought.

2) The FAST search is now a built-in.

 

Many SharePoint 2010 users fell in love with the "FAST search" add-on that gave an improved search algorithm, improved previews, and an army of new search functionality. Here's something that those outside of SharePoint consultancy don't usually know: FAST search was actually a project created by a Norwegian, non-Microsoft company; Microsoft bought the add-on, customized it, fine-tuned it, and is now including it from the get-go.

3) SharePoint 2013 Is Microsoft's Enterprise Social Platform

 

Some people are confused by the social elements of this enterprise content management system, and that's largely because "social" is immediately associated with social networks like Facebook and Twitter. SharePoint 2013 isn't aiming to compete with either of these services, but it is bringing social into the enterprise arena with a number of new features. If you haven't been using social before now, you may not have noticed the social feature updates. Take it from us: They're well worth exploring.

4) Geolocation can be added as a field.

 

If you're a small company with little mobility, Geolocation won't add much for you. For larger companies or companies that have road warriors in their ranks, the ability to add a geolocation field is amazingly useful. Adding this feature may require the help of a Microsoft SharePoint consultant, but it's well worth it for companies who can make use of geotagging.

5) The guest link feature gives new sharing opportunities.

 

Sharing is caring, right? You can now bring in even more shared content through the "guest link" feature. This allows anything stored in SharePoint Online to be shared with people who aren't SharePoint users. This makes it easy to send client presentations, give useful information to partner companies, and do far more.

6) PHP can now be used directly for SharePoint functionality.

 

PHP has had a fairly complicated relationship with SharePoint in the past, but they seem to have worked things out: SharePoint functions can be programmed directly in PHP in SharePoint 2013. Even more exciting for some is the inclusion of improved CSS and HTML 5 interaction. There are still some limitations for programming, but there's no doubt coding new functions is far smoother.
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