This Week in Web Apps – Blancer.com Tutorials and projects

With so much happening in the digital world, it can be a full time job just staying up to date on the latest web app happenings. But, that’s why you come to Web.AppStorm… right? With all the fantastic new features app developers are constantly releasing, we’re not really able to report them all and ultimately many of our readers miss out on some really good stuff. So, we’re going to try something new.

At the end of a week, a few times per month, we’ll bring you some of the best web app news and updates. App developers, this is a great time to familiarize yourselves with our contact form to submit your news or tips.

Read on after the break for some of this weeks best web app news and updates.

SugarSync and Box.net Users to get More Free Storage

SugarSync and Box.Net Free Storage

Who doesn’t love additional free space in the cloud for backup and sync of files? Dropbox competitor SugarSync has announced that all users who register for a free account will now receive 5GB of storage space. That’s a lot of space for a file syncing solution.

File sharing service Box.net allows you to organize and view all of your content online in a familiar file and folder structure, now with a fat 5 GB storage. The real question is why isn’t Dropbox blinking yet?

Google Releases Official Extensions to Chrome

Google Chrome Plugins

Chrome is growing like a weed, both in the installed userbase numbers and the version count (the latest is version 7). Google has now released official extensions for some of its popular web apps. The calender extension lets you easily check your Google Calendar for upcoming events and add new events from the websites you visit. The Web Clipboard extension allows you to copy and paste text and images easily with the Google Docs clipboard. The YouTube Feed extension notifies you whenever new videos are available in your YouTube homepage feed. Other Google extensions got a new update too!

Zoho Support

Folks at Zoho are an incredible lot indeed. They just don’t tire of releasing web apps, and great ones at that. Zoho Support is a web-based help desk software that allows organizations to easily manage and respond to an ever growing number of customer support inquiries that arrive via different channels (phone, e-mail, web). In the era of real-time communication and instant-everything, customers expect a prompt answer to their questions. Do give it a try.

Facebook to launch a Gmail killer?

Facebook Event

Google was really annoying Microsoft for a few years with competing cloud-based alternatives at an irresistible price-free. Now the tables are turned and Facebook is being a pain in the wrong place for Google. Will they be launching their own email service? Sure, it’s a logical progression for them and there are big advertising bucks at stake. This is one fight that will be interesting to watch!

Bringing Tweets to Your Content

Blackbird Pie

Twitter is one startup that takes its own sweet time to launch feature(s) at a leisurely pace. They finally solved the problem of embedding Tweets into blog posts and websites with their Blackbird Pie feature and you don’t have to take screenshots of tweets to post in your blog anymore. While there are free plugins available for self-hosted WordPress installations, WordPress.com has recently enabled this feature for all its users.

Hotmail Security Upgrades

Hotmail Security Update

Gmail has had HTTPS encryption for quiet sometime now and Hotmail has also decided to make email safer for its users. Hotmail is providing users with the option to enhance the security of their entire Hotmail session with HTTPS data encryption (via secure socket layers, or SSL), which is currently used to help secure your Hotmail sign-in. Also, SkyDrive, Photos, Docs, and Devices pages all will automatically use SSL encryption. I highly recommend Hotmail users to make the most out of this feature.

Joomla Leaders: Enterprise Is Better With Open Source

Joomla

With the evolution of WordPress from a blogging platform to a versatile CMS, open source Content Management Systems like Joomla and Drupal have been denied some of the limelight they rightfully deserve. Mashable has posted a great interview with the Joomla product leaders on what lies ahead for the CMS. It’s a great read if you are an open source enthusiast.