On 27 January, Facebook, which claims to have about 1.35 billion active users, suffered widespread outage for about an hour, affecting users in Asia, Australia, Europe and the US. Many of the users took to Twitter to express their outrage. Residents in California even called 911 asking when Facebook would be back!
In the near future, police may receive more calls for similar incidents. Facebook announced early this year a whole new portal that officially acknowledges all the work hours you spend on Facebook—Facebook at Work. This means you can never not be on Facebook.
Lars Rasmussen, Facebook's director of engineering, said, 'We have found that using Facebook as a work tool makes our work day more efficient.' So they would like to make the same convenience available to the rest of the world. In fact, Facebook itself says its 8,000 staff have been using Facebook internally for the last 10 years.
Facebook at Work allows companies to create their own customized version of Facebook. It exists as a separate portal on the desktop, as well as on separate apps for iOS and Android devices. Employers can create separate logins for employees to use with their Work accounts, and users do not actually have to have a personal Facebook at all.
Facebook at Work works pretty much like regular Facebook except the colour scheme is different. It is shaded white instead of its trademark blue, making it easy for your boss looking over your shoulder to know that, even though you are on Facebook, you are still 'working'.
Other than that, the same familiar features—profiles, news feed, events hub, messages, groups, photo and video sharing functions—are all in place. Employees can communicate with each other, pass on news, plan meetings and share documents. It is expected that Facebook at Work will eventually replace e-mail.
For now, Facebook said it's making Facebook at Work available to a handful of partners, who will be testing the product ahead of its full-blown launch, tentatively slated for later this year. Facebook claimed that it will be managed by your own corporate IT department and will remain a private, closed ecosystem only accessible to those inside a company. However, there are still lots of questions. For example, would Facebook have access to business data? How will Facebook charge for this? Will there be advertisements like personal Facebook?
One thing is for sure: if Facebook at Work becomes popular, it only means that even more people will be glued to Facebook for at least eight hours a day.
