SharePoint 2013 first look

Summing up SharePoint 2013 after a full day of testing?  Its a lot more like Blogger, and that good.  Though the site has added a lot of new social features, it has remained a content publication and distribution tool with a purpose in life, something twitter and facebook really can't say.  Microsoft has kept the basic structure of SharePoint the same, but made the interface confirm to open standards better (it runs great on Chrome), has simplified the interface, and has added some great features well established in Web 2.0.

Embedding has lagged terribly in SharePoint until now, but with the new embed tool you can insert and review widget of code as well as with any WYSISYG tool I have seen.  Embedding YouTube videos will now be much easier and I hope to see SharePoint 2013 bringing much of the 'cognitive surplus' that is out there in YouTube in to the Enterprise.

 The layout and color schemes are actually a bit more subdued, clearly created with tablets in mind over screens.  SharePoint 2013 will be first WCM and ECM system for the Windows 8 tablet.  Likely the product will move tablets and phones from the consumer market to the Enterprise.

If you can't beat them join them, and SharePoint is now made up of Apps.  A clever users might notice that a App in SharePoint is really nothing more than a Web Part that has been instantiated to a site, but the adoption of a App framework makes for more consistent Web 2.0 usage.

Perhaps the most obvious change is the clear move to Windows 8 and the tablet.  My testing of IE8 was good but we found that Chrome was just as good, which can only mean SharePoint has finally embraced full standards.   The simpler graphic layout and 'metro' style clearly means this is the touch screen SharePoint.

In a much needed change the ribbon has been made simpler.  Microsoft might be getting this right.