Microsoft experiments with microblogging

In a recent post on the Microsoft Office Labs blog, Microsoft announced it was going into a limited Beta with a new microblogging tool it's calling OfficeTalk.

OfficeTalk provides a way to share information in short bites. Think of it as an internal Twitter. The blog post reports that they tested it internally first and it proved to be one of the most popular experiments they've ever conducted. Now, they are looking for Beta testers to test it further outside of the confines of Redmond where it might get a more critical view.

It's not a big surprise that Microsoft is testing such a product as it has become one of the more popular Enterprise 2.0 communication options inside organizations. As usual, Microsoft is a little late to the game as there are already many reasonable solutions out there from companies like Socialtext and Microsoft's own partner Newsgator (which it mentions in the blog post).

Traditionally, Microsoft has left tools like this to the partner network, but perhaps it's realizing that Outlook may be losing some of its shine and if Microsoft wants to maintain some control of Enterprise communications, it needs to get into the game with the latest and greatest tool.

For now, as the post's writers clearly point out, this is just an experiment, and as such, it may never see the light of day. But the fact is that social tools like microblogging are playing an increasingly important role and it would behoove Microsoft to get involved before it gets left behind.

For more information:
- see the Microsoft Blog post

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