Facebook at Work coming today, creates in-house social networks
TUAW sister site TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook is launching iOS and Android apps today called "Work" that connect with a special "Facebook at Work" service to allow business create their own in-house social networks that work exactly like Facebook.
The app, which will be usable via a limited pilot at first, requires a separate login created by employers to use just the Work account, and users can link the work login with other profiles if they wish to see all Facebook content in one location.
Work is designed to compete with Microsoft Yammer, Slack, Convo, Socialcast, and other enterprise social network hopefuls. It's not guaranteed that Work will be successful; TechCrunch's Ingrid Lunden reports that Facebook engineering director Lars Rasmussen previously led the failed and similar Google Wave project.
There are other uncertainties about Facebook's enterprise push as well; will the service be free, run advertisements, or work on a subscription basis like Slack? And, as Lunden points out, there's a lot of concern within corporations about Facebook having access to their data - "That can be frustrating when related to pictures of you too drunk when you were in college, or frankly scary looking when you were in high school, but potentially very costly and illegal if proprietary work information is involved."
