Choosing a SharePoint application isn’t exactly as easy as choosing one for Twitter, iPhone/iPad or Gmail—as of now, the closest the EIM behemoth comes to having a centralized marketplace is Microsoft PinPoint, which is hardly comprehensive. The majority of SharePoint apps and web parts are either sold by their individual creators or housed under a handful of big developers like CorasWorks, filtering and pinpointing (cough cough) the one you want a lengthy and inefficient process. Which isn’t to say there aren’t any good apps out there. There are plenty, but you have to look. (Or let me do the looking for you.) The following five apps stood out among the dozens I examined in terms of their usefulness, scalability and pop-factor (no dundering Windows 95-era dinosaurs here). Think I’ve missed one? Feel free to add it in the comments.

1) Loqu8 Insight

What it does: Billed as an “augmented learning” solution, this application provides its users with contextual pop-ups pulled from Bing, Google and Google Docs, foreign language translation services, LinkedIn and Salesforce while they’re in SharePoint, Outlook, Word, Excel and/or PowerPoint.

Example: Jerry is tasked with creating a presentation in SharePoint on how to use social media in the workplace. One problem: he doesn’t really know what this “social media stuff” is, so he activates Loqu8, selects the Bing or Google search tab in the Loqu8 pop-up window and then scrolls over those mysterious words. The window instantly populates with search results, including an article on using social media in the workplace. Cha-ching! Continue reading 5 Exciting SharePoint Apps →