Facebook is attempting to change its image as the great inhibitor of work at offices around the world and become a beneficial use of workers’ time. To do this, they are developing an at-work product called Facebook@work, according to TechCrunch.
The anonymous source at Facebook who leaked the information said that “we are making work more fun and efficient by building an at-work version of Facebook. … We will touch code throughout the stack and on all platforms (web, iOS, Android, etc.).”
It is unclear exactly how the plan is intended to work, but Facebook, as a company, already uses Facebook internally for work-related purposes. A former Facebook employee told TechCrunch that “everyone at Facebook uses Facebook for work. Most of their communication is done through Messages and Groups. It would be a pretty natural thing to try to expose this way of using Facebook to get things done at the office to the rest of the world.”
The most likely format for Facebook’s new project is to create a messaging system for internal communication throughout the office that is similar to email. The messaging would have specific groups that members could be added to or subtracted from.
Facebook may also be developing a system like LinkedIn that would allow new businesses to connect with people across the world and expand their market.
An official Facebook spokesman refused to talk about the new product and told TechCrunch that he or she “has nothing to add at this point.”