Microsoft piloting Twitter-like service for businesses

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Matthew DeCarlo

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While Twitter and other public social networks aren't cut out for internal company use, Microsoft believes such a service has its place in a corporate setting. Deep in its Redmond lair, the company is testing a new product that might fit the bill.

Called "OfficeTalk," the service is described as a vehicle that "applies the base capabilities of microblogging to a business environment, enabling employees to post their thoughts, activities, and potentially valuable information to anyone who might be interested."


OfficeTalk reportedly began as a side project for a few Office Labs workers, and quickly accumulated thousands of users inside the company. Interestingly, Google has been using an internal version of Buzz for "a really long time," according to the company's Brett Slatkin.

Similar services already exist, such as Yammer, so it should be interesting to see where OfficeTalk fits in, but it is still deemed a "research project." Who knows if or when it'll be widely available. In the meantime, Microsoft is looking for a handful of businesses to test OfficeTalk, and you can apply here.

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Well this sounds intresting for Corprate stuff It doesn't sound much like it'll do what I'd really be interested in.

I would like a more Pro-streamlined twitter like place to do micro blogging but really would like to see something that had more of a specialized feel; Like artiest could be all in one place and programs could be in another, so it would be easier to find people in your field, but all on the same service so that way normal uses how wanted to track people would only need one account, but the professional uses could easily find like people.

Now given I have never "Used" Twitter I only really keep track of a single artiest twits, and the whole twitter site just feels cluttered and bulky, so it's never inspired me to bother looking into using it myself. But I have seen what people do with twitter and it would be nice to have a bit more of a stream-lined version. Yes you could just use RSS or a Widget on your site, but then you don't get the whole Intercommunication blogging/talking that seems to happen among the users in the same field. I'd almost say what I like, about what i see boarders on the line of people using it like a Short responds BBS/blog hybread, and that's what I'd like to see. I'm sure there's somthing like that already out there, I just haven't wondered by it yet, but it wouldn't do a lot of good unless it got used by a lot of people in the same field.
 
For a company I can see that freeing them from the shackles of e-mail, will certainly streamline communication.
 
I found Qontext www.qontext.com might become the game changer and looks to solve the enterprise challenge to bring Public Social Networking capability within business environment.

It is easy to use , virtual , Private and integrable with business applications.

Nishant Nair

India
 
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