Today IBM launched it’s business social network service called Bluehouse. Bluehouse will offer business professionals the best of both social networking services and business-collaboration tools.

Bluehouse is a software-as-a-service site. Bluehouse will be free during its public beta release. Once the beta testing is over, in a few months, subscription prices will start.

Bluehouse will feature a set of online collaboration tools, including instant messaging, networked conferencing, file sharing, profiles, directory and tools to build business social networks.

Linkedin.com and Facebook.com are two of the top social network sites that are currently used by some companies for business collaboration and networking. Like Facebook, Bluehouse will allow people to quickly collaborate with one another. However, Bluehouse has special management options to ensure that privacy and other security controls are in place for businesses.

For more information on the Bluehouse social network, visit bluehouse.lotus.com.

Source: ComputerWorld