WebMatrix helps developers learn standards-based Web development, explains the text on its new website, using technologies like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. And it even connects you to open source apps like DotNetNuke, Umbraco, WordPress, Joomla!, and more, all available from the built-in gallery. (You’ll probably remember seeing these apps in the Windows Web App Gallery, which was also launched over the past year).

The interface WebMatrix displays when you launch it the first time is a simple wizard-based welcome screen that lets you pick whether you want to create a site from the Web Gallery, a template (several are included) or a “site from folder.”  This may be too simple for advanced developers, but that’s the point. WebMatrix is intended for “web agencies, small development teams within SMBs, hobbyists, and students,” writes Microsoft’s Laurence Moroney on The Officical Microsoft Web Platform Team Blog. Moroney also details how to get started with the tool and do other nifty things, like displaying a Twitter feed, for example.

To download WebMatrix now, you can do so from here. (But note the “beta” label, OK?)

Joomla!’s Sam Moffatt shares, “…it's a big deal to have a major company contributing to the codebase. And yes, the fact that it's Microsoft contributing to a GPL project is big news.” But he says it’s also a natural progression, considering all the work that has been going on for some time now between the two companies.

Already, Joomla! has worked with Microsoft to get their package up on the Web Platform Installer where it now has 32,000 downloads, for example. They’ve also worked with Microsoft on optimizing Joomla! for better IIS compatibility, something that means “opening a whole new territory of possibilities including in many enterprises,” says Moffatt. (Previously, Joomla! was more Apache-focused.)

The Microsoft-contributed code will be made available in Joomla! 1.6, as noted above, but if you want to try it now with 1.5, there’s a workaround for that here.

You may remember hearing about WorldWide Telescope (WWT) when it launched back in May 2008 thanks to a little hype from Robert Scoble, but since that time the once Windows-only desktop software has been updated with new features, went 3D, was integrated into Virtual Earth, and finally came to the web for everyone to use thanks to Silverlight technology.

Photosynth has also seen a number of improvements since its launch in March of this year. It was integrated into Virtual Earth, Live Maps, and Windows Live Photo Gallery, arrived on the iPhone and Facebook, and someone even figured out how to navigate synths using gestures. Cool! If you haven’t tried out Photosynth yourself just yet, you can learn how to do it here.

From the main page, you have one of two options: A basic search box or an advanced search box. The basic box will display search results on the Bing website. The box can be configured to search just your own web site or the entire web. The other option is an advanced search box which will display the search results right on your own site. You can also specify multiple sites for it to search, the entire web, or you can apply a Bing Macro.

After you click “Get Started” on the Basic Search box, you’re taken to a Help page where there’s code you can copy and paste. You’ll have to replace a bit of code (the “CODE PAGE USED BY YOUR HTML PAGE” section) before pasting, though. That refers to the code page number of the language your website is written in. For example, a western European-based (also known as Latin 1) language, such as French, English, or German, would replace this instruction with the number 1252. You can find other code page numbers here.

If you click “Get Started” underneath the Advanced Search box option, you’ll be taken to a wizard where you fill in info like display name and site name and can check boxes for web search and search macro. After clicking “Next” you can then customize the box’s size and color. You’re then given code to copy-and-paste. Although this takes a few more steps than the basic box, you may find it easier in the long run to go this route since you don’t have to replace anything in the code.

Either way, in a matter of moments, you’ll have a Bing box which you can add to any site.