Chris Gilmer , Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

Microsoft tried to buy out Facebook, but that didnt work out to well. The kids decided to run things on their own and Microsoft got turned down but got to invest a little chunk of change in them ($250Million). So what is the next best thing to do? Build your own!

Microsoft TownSquare is a Facebook type social network that is currently only running inside of the company. The prototyped application provides feeds and updates to colleagues about what their co-workers are up to. They layout is supposedly similar to Facebook, with enterprise news feeds that are using web services to that hit up SharePoint for public information, such as promotions, company anniversaries and employee information.

Word has it that even some of Microsoft customers are using the application secretly. The TownSquare application is being headed by the Office Labs research team. With many corporate IT teams shutting down access to social network sites like Facebook for employees, TownSquare might be their only hope to straight up office gossiping.