Is Facebook Messaging Using Office Apps Ready for Business?

Inside Facebook's reintroduced message platform, you'll notice a thorough influx of Microsoft Office apps. There is a question, then, as to whether this makes Facebook's promise as a business portal more attractive.

The U.S. traffic on Facebook rose 55 percent last year, and combining that with their revamped message platform, there are thoughts that this may make the site more attractive to business users. Some corporations already use Facebook to leverage their online presence, but not as many use the offerings of Facebook for their daily flow of work.

You can now view Facebook's messaging platform on Office.com, which will open attached MS Excel, Word and PowerPoint documents in your browser. In addition, users can download these attachments onto their hard drives, as long as Office is installed on their computer.

The new messaging platform at Facebook integrates Office web apps so that Facebook users can view these MS documents with one simple click. This now allows you to share ideas with your family and friends on Facebook in a different way.

Microsoft has been angling, it is believed, to integrate more of the functionality of social networking into their offerings that benefit productivity. It has been suggested by at least one software expert that the company should work at exploiting the social platforms online and view them in the context of business. One initiative was even designed to assist in capitalizing on social network opportunities that were developed by Microsoft or other entities.

The plan was to prioritize their efforts, so that the business' capabilities could be applied to areas where that company's existing structures or missions might cause the company to miss possible opportunities or threats.

Facebook and Microsoft both have have a competitor of sorts in Google. Facebook messaging seems like it is aimed directly at Gmail, which is buttressing its offerings with voice calling and chat options. And although there are cloud-based programs like Office 365 expected in 2011, Microsoft does appear to be determined in beating back any threat that Google Apps presents.

On Google's part, the company has no issues about pushing back. They filed a lawsuit in October of 2010 against the federal government, charging that their bid to update the Interior Department's message and email system and been thwarted unfairly in favor of the Microsoft Federal Suite. Office 365 combines Sharepoint Online, MS Office, Lync Online and Exchange Online into the cloud program.

It remains to be seen whether the businesses who now are considering using the cloud will be more or less inclined to use Facebook Messaging as their primary or back-up platform, since it now has a more fully interlinked operational ability with the Cloud tools of Office.