The Future of Yammer in Office 365

Back in 2008 Yammer was one of many privately held companies offering cloud based business software. Their product, also called Yammer, was a new type of social network aimed purely at the enterprise. It allowed users to work in groups, share files, retrieve feedback, cut back on meetings and email chains, and engage collaboratively. The product grew quickly, gaining traction with all kinds of companies, and was generally received as being easy to use and innovative. One company in particular stood up and took notice - that was Microsoft. They were so impressed that they bought the company.

Microsoft was looking for a way to make a major entry into this social media space. It had invested a great deal of time and money in SharePoint social features, but something wasn’t quite working. They did not appear to be growing at the pace Microsoft had planned, uptake with users was generally disappointing. Users wanted more, they wanted tools more like the social networks they used outside of the office. Yammer offered this, so in 2012 Microsoft acquired Yammer for $1.2 billion.

Examples of Web Portals

1.     AOL- (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by Verizon Media.

2.    iGoogle- (formerly Google Personalized Homepage) was a customizable Ajax-based start page or personal web portallaunched by Google in May 2005. It was discontinued on November 1, 2013^[2][3] because the company believed the need for it had eroded over time.^[4][5] As of 17 October  2007, Google had made the service available in many localized versions in 42 languages, and in over 70 country domain-names.^[6] In February 2007, 7.1 million people used iGoogle.^[7]In April 2008, 20% of all visits to Google's homepage used iGoogle.^[8] On July 3, 2012 Google announced iGoogle would be discontinued on November 1, 2013.

3.    MSM^-mainstream media (as opposed to the blogosphere).

4.    Netvibes- is a company. Common uses: Brand monitoring – to track clients, customers and competitors across media sources all in one place, analyze live results with third party reporting tools, and provide media monitoring dashboards for brand clients.

5.    Naver- (Hangul: 네이버)is a South Korean online platform operated by Naver Corporation. It debuted in 1999 as the first web portal in Korea to develop and use its own search engine. It was also the world's first operator to introduce the comprehensive search feature, which compiles search results from various categories and presents them in a single page. Naver has since added a multitude of new services ranging from basic features such as e-mail and news to the world's first online Q&A platform Knowledge iNck on meetings and email chains, and engage collaboratively.