In this paper, we discuss novel nanoscale experimental approaches involving shear forces to investigate inter- and intramolecular mobilities, and their effect on mass and electronic transport, and material deformation properties. We review the non-scanning method of shear modulation force microscopy (SM-FM) used for glass transition analysis, and introduce heated tip atomic force microscopy (HT-AFM) for thermomechanical analysis of material interfaces. The dynamics and kinetics in organic thin films that are typically revealed by the activation energies related to molecular relaxations are determined with intrinsic friction analysis (IFA). Both SM-FM and IFA are applied to optimize the poling efficiency of organic non-linear optical materials involving chromophores, used for photonic devices. They also provide information about intramolecular relaxation properties. A shear force analysis involving HT-AFM was used to investigate the interfacial strength of silica nanoparticles and poly(trimethylsilylpropyne), which are known to form a reverse-selective membrane nanocomposite system.