Microsoft is testing a prototype Facebook-like offering designed to bring social networking features to company intranets.
TownSquare will provide feeds and updates on employees using web services to poll SharePoint.
Microsoft is hoping to bring social networking features to company intranets
Microsoft TownSquare puts web 2.0 in a suit
Social network gives Facebook a corporate face
vnunet.com, 11 Jun 2008
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Users will be able to customise profiles and feeds, decide who gets to see what information about them and receive status notifications of colleagues' whereabouts and the projects on which they are working.
The system is currently used daily by about 700 Microsoft employees, the company said, and is also under test at unnamed Microsoft customers.
Microsoft and third-party software developers see SharePoint as a natural basis for developing corporate web 2.0 applications.
Microsoft is also backing commercial social networking following a $240m stake in Facebook dating from October 2007.
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