Facebook At Work: Social Media Site Wants To Create A Chat And Social Sharing System, Report Says

According to a Tech Crunch report, Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) wants to create a work-based social media site. Facebook at Work, or FB@Work, may be a platform for professionals to use chat and group functions to share data and collaborate.

An anonymous source spoke to Tech Crunch about Facebook at Work, which is being developed in London. It's unclear if FB@Work will be used as a way for professionals to collaborate internally or if it will be used to connect employees socially, as LinkedIn does.

According to the source, within Facebook's new site, employees will belong to "Groups" and use the Messenger function to chat about projects and share images via Pixelcloud, an internal tool with a home page that lists available images, and a second page for comments, Tech Crunch reported.

The report also noted that Lars Rasmussen, who developed the collaborative Google Wave, is in charge of Facebook's engineering team in London. Some companies already use Facebook as a way to communicate internally, since the majority of employees are on Facebook to begin with, and it doesn't require additional software or messaging systems.

It's unclear if FB@Work will be free or if it will be sold commercially, though many wonder about the overall value of such a service for the company. As Gizmodo points out, many are already on Facebook during work hours.