Socialtext 4.0 wisely copies Google Groups

Socialtext has released version 4.0 of its enterprise social platform, and the main new feature is the ability to create groups. At first glance it seems that it's a little feature, and the new release is issued only for PR. However, all genious is simple, and Socialtext - is one of those companies that earn good money on these things. Groups - online spaces for communication and collaboration - are important for enterprise. These may be department-centric spaces, or workspaces for project teams, or communities of interest (yes, they are also useful for business, as they bring staff together). But how easy it is to create an online group space, for example, in Sharepoint? It's complicated enough for not creating it at all.


Another example - Google Groups, which have recently become the part of Google Apps. In couple of clicks you can create a group, set permissions, to invite the co-workers. The same is with Socialtext 4.0, but instead of discussions (that are used in Google Groups) it uses microblogging service. Any employee can create a group. The group has a front page with the description, list of participants and activity stream. Each group has the microblog, where members can add messages, and workspaces with wiki, spreadsheets and files. Groups can be public, private and invisible.


You can access groups in browser, the desktop client or mobile device (iPhone, Android, Blackberry). Socialtext provides the free SaaS version for 50 users.