Microsoft's new Office Graph will help you discover what's trending around your workplace
Microsoft Office is about to get more personal with something called Office Graph. The new feature incorporates your web searches and online interactions, allowing it to highlight files and projects it thinks are important to you based on who you're talking to. It can also let you know how you're connected though people or projects to others at your organization. Over time, Office Graph will come into play in a number of Microsoft's apps and services, one of the first being a standalone product codenamed Oslo -- not to be confused with the previous Microsoft Oslo. (Coming up with new names is hard!) The app will display information like who attended a meeting or what conversation topics are trending at your business on digital cards like Google Now. You can also track what files are being shared -- so you'll know if everyone's passing around a video of John breakdancing at the company party.
The Office Graph will also power a new Groups function that integrates with Yammer and allows you to share email, files and calendars across a group of coworkers. And Inline Social, a feature that will be integrated with Lync and Skype for having conversations inside documents that are stored in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for business. There are also plans to create a secure Video Portal where you can upload, stream and share company-wide videos, like your own private YouTube. Anxious to try it out? You'll have to wait a little while. Oslo is expected to be available for Office 365 customers the second half of this year, with additional Office Graph implementations headed our way in 2015.
