Microsoft is following other companies that are already offering microblogging software for enterprises. For instance, SocialText, StatusNet, Yammer, Socialcast and Salesforce's Chatter are all microblogging products used by enterprises.

Office Labs researchers are always quick to point out that they work on experiments that may never become live products, and this blog post is no different. "OfficeTalk isn't a product -- it's a research project focused on learning how people might use social networking tools at work and in what ways both people and organizations realize their value," it reads.

The blog post is dated Wednesday, and ZDNet about it on Friday.