Closure Tools is set of opensource (release info) developer tools by Google which are used while building Gmail, Google Maps, Google Docs  & many others.

The tools include a JavaScript compiler, library & templating system.

JavaScript Compiler

It compiles JavaScript into compact, high-performance code. The compiler removes dead code and rewrites and minimizes what's left so that it downloads and runs quickly.

It also checks syntax, variable references, and types, and warns about common JavaScript pitfalls.

The compiler also offers a Firebug extension, named Inspector, for better debugging.

Closure Library

It is a broad, well-tested, modular, & cross-browser JavaScript library.

Only what you need can be pulled from a large set of reusable UI widgets, controls, lower-level utilities for DOM manipulation, server communication, animation, data structures, unit testing, rich-text editing, & more.

Closure Templates

They simplifty the task of dynamically generating HTML.

In contrast to traditional templating systems, in which you use one big template per page, you can think of Closure Templates as small components that you compose to form your user interface.

Adobe AIR applications are great considering the ease-of-use & simplicity they offer.

Almost regulary, WRD is sharing the fresh Adobe AIR applications that web designers & developers will find useful, like:

• 15 New Adobe AIR Applications For Designers & Developers
  
• 16 Fresh Adobe AIR Applications For Designers & Developers
  
• 27 Adobe AIR Applications – Handy For Web Designers
  

Since then, new applications are created & ready to use. And, here they are:

Image Editing, Debugging & Invoicing

zFlick

This is an awesome Flickr search tool that makes browsing between images fun.

Once you find what you're looking for, just drag'n drop that image to your desktop to download it.

PixelWindow

It helps measuring the width/height of any item on the desktop. With a semi-transparent background & custom-presets, it is a great helper when prototyping websites.

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FireQuery is a Firefox add-on that extends Firebug with new jQuery-focused features.

It adds extra functions to the HTML tab like showing embedded data elements & event handlers inserted using jQuery.

All the jQuery expressions are presented in Firebug Console + DOM inspector and elements in jQuery collections are highlighted on hover.

Also, the jQueryify bookmarklet is integrated into FireQuery which makes injecting jQuery into any website possible.

Mu is a JavaScript library for enabling Facebook Connect on any website with ease.

It makes accessing the following possible:

• Identity: the user's name, photo and more
• Social Graph: the user's friends and connections
• Distribution: the Stream, and the ability to communicate
• Integration: publishers, canvas pages, profile boxes & tabs

Mu is lightweight can be used with other libraries with no conflicts.

There is also a console provided for experimenting the Mu APIs.

Script.aculo.us is the most widely used add-on for the Prototype JavaScript Framework with the features like animations, drag'n drop, Ajax control & more.

Its second version, renamed as Scripty2, is out with a complete rewrite. It is lightweight (5kb compressed), flexible & works faster.

The library is currently in alpha status & there are still parts that need to be developed or improved. On the other hand, it is very promising & already being used by several big projects.

And, besides the Scripty2 homepage itself, the demos show how it will be empowering Prototype JS.

After The Deadline is a project of Automattic (the creator of Wordpress) which checks:

• spelling
• grammar
• styles (finds complex phrases, cliches, bias-language & suggests simple ones)
• and detects misused words (has a database of 1500 most misused words & suggestions)

The software used to come as a plugin for several projects (like Wordpress, RoundCube, PHP List) but it is now open source and anybody can embed it to their own code.

Besides the artificial intelligence it already has, it is possible to add new rules & improve the application.

The project also has libraries for jQuery, Ruby & Python to make developing new plugins easier.

XMail Server Lite is an open source & free mail server with an Ajaxed webmail bundled to it.

It is compatible with Window & Linux OSs with 2 different installers provided.

The server is capable of managing SMTP/ESMTP & POP3 protocols with web-based administration panel.

It supports unlimited domains/users including virtual domains & aliases.

XMail Lite also offers anti-virus integration, bayesian filters (for spam protection) & a logging functionality of all the activities.

The Webmail Lite can display folders/nested folders, has an address book, multilingual & much more.

Tip: The webmail can be downloaded & installed as a standalone product too (from here).

Ident Engine is an open source JavaScript library that can bring together the footprints every user leaves on various social networks.

The library supports more than 70 sites, including all the popular ones like Twitter, Flickr, Facebook or Youtube.

From Glenn Jones, the creator of the library:

Wouldn’t it be a little magical if, when you signed up for a new site, the site said something like, “We notice you have a profile photo on Flickr and Twitter, would you like to use one of those or upload a new one?”

Ident Engine makes this totally possible.

It analyzes the relations between various networks using the rel="me" tags & Social Graph API’s "lookup" method.

And, to parse the profiles Yahoo’s YQL or a .Net parser, UfXtract is used.

More technical details can be found at "Discovering Magic", an article by Glenn Jones, and you can always check the demos to see the power of Ident Engine.

Considering 99% of the websites/web applications has a part which send e-mails (like contact or sign-up pages), "testing if e-mails can be sent or not" is a frequent task.

Papercut is an open source simplified SMTP server, created specially for local testing purposes, that only receives messages & allows you to see the messages it receives.

It can sit in the system tray & when a new message is received, a balloon message will show up to let you know.

Another good thing is, Papercut is very light & doesn’t have an installer, just an .exe that works when clicked.

Optionally, it is possible to bind the application to a specific IP address or a port other than 25.

To sum up, the application is very handy for anyone who is testing e-mail sending functionality of their web applications locally & doesn’t want to deal with any other setup or wait for the test e-mails to arrive.

punypng is a free web-based application which can seriously compress JPG, GIF & PNG images without any loss of quality.

The application first analyzes the content of your image and figures out the best image format to use. If necessary, converts the format automatically.

It also has built-in support for dirty transparency* which can save an average of extra 10% for transparent GIF & PNG files.

What would be more amazing is the service to offer a desktop tool with context menu support.

*: an innovative technique that offers additional compression to any PNG or GIF as long as it has either 8-bit or 1-bit transparency