New tools and applications for Lync 2010

This article contains information about new tools and applications for Lync 2010. To ease adoption of Lync 2010, the following new tools and applications are available: 

• IM an Expert
  IM an Expert is a social networking tool that helps the people in your organization who have questions find the people in your organization who have answers. The tool parses the question to determine the topic area, finds topic area experts in a user-populated expert database, and forwards the question.
  
• Conversations Analyzer
  Conversations Analyzer is an application that reviews your Lync instant messaging (IM) conversation history and applies trust rules to determine the occurrence of words and phrases that have a positive or adverse effect on trust.
  
• Conversation Translator
  Conversation Translator provides a real-time language translation service for Lync instant messaging (IM) conversations. It currently supports translation between 35 languages.
  
• Information Dashboard
  Information Dashboard helps you start a conversation with a remote contact by providing current information about the contact's location. It returns the day, the date, the local time, the weather forecast, and any news feeds of articles that are related to the location.
  
• Tabbed Conversations
  Tabbed Conversations enables multiple instant messaging conversations in a single tabbed window.
  
• Group Chat Stress Tool
  You can use the Group Chat Stress tool to help verify the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 and Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Group Chat hardware deployment.
  
• Lync Custom Intranet Site
  The Lync Custom Intranet Site lets you deliver a version of Lync 2010 Help that matches the way your organization works. The site includes HTML source code for all Help pages. It also includes short how-to videos, Help topics, Microsoft PowerPoint training presentations, and other resources that are currently available on the Web.
  
• Lync How-to
  Lync How-to is a user education and training tool that provides step-by-step instructions and short videos for common Lync 2010 tasks. You can customize the content by editing the Rolodex.xml file that is included with the Lync How-to download package. 

Some of these tools can just be downloaded and installed by end-users, and other tools must be set up as internal tools or sites for company use and support. An organization can download any of them but must use them at their own risk. These tools and applications are not supported by Microsoft Office 365.