Microsoft Testing Prototype of Facebook-like Social Network

At the request of its SharePoint and Office product development teams, Microsoft's Office Labs operation has created and is testing a prototype of an internal social network that can provide employees with feeds and updates about their colleagues.

Timesquare, an enterprise social network to be used by business, was launched internally in January and has already been used by about 8,000 Microsoft employees.

With a layout that is strikingly similar to Facebook's (in which Microsoft invested $240 million in October 2007), TownSquare is fueled by enterprise news feeds that use Web services to query SharePoint for public information, such as promotions and company anniversaries, about an employee.

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