There is no official word about it, but the rumors (that were right about Facebook going anonymous) keep circulating: Facebook is apparently testing a new service that would allow people use the social network at their workplace. According to anonymous sources cited by Wired, the new product would be completely separate from the main social network, allowing business users to send and receive messages, collaborate and connect with others in their professional network. Facebook, of course, declined to comment on the story.
Facebook is the largest ever social network ever created, with its user base easily exceeding 1.3 billion, is shut out of many workplaces. The reasons are obvious – people with uncontrolled access to the social network would spend most of their work hours procrastinating instead of being productive. I have to admit that the title I used was a bit deceptive – the new service (most likely Facebook for Work) will not allow users to access the social network, but provide a tool for networking at the workplace, similar to the Chatter service provided by Salesforce or Yammer, the similar product offered by Microsoft.
With such a service Facebook would instantly become a direct competitor for the above mentioned services, and if it also adds collaborative document editing, it would also compete with Google Docs, Box and Dropbox. Besides, it would instantly attack LinkedIn, the professional social network. The new service Facebook reportedly plans to launch has some quite big shoes to fill. There is no word about what the Facebook for Work service will offer to differentiate itself – rumors talk about Groups and News to be included into the service, as well as the separation of the users’ personal accounts from their professional ones. To find its way inside businesses the social giant will have to convince their owners that their internal documents and messages will be safe – and this is quite a challenge nowadays.