Yammer Is Twitter For Business

bMighty has long been conflicted about the business value of "micro-blogging" sevices like Twitter. But the brand-new Yammer -- a twitter for the enterprise, has "won" the TechCrunch 50 event.As Naomi Grossman pointed out back in May, lots of people think Twitter is a colossal waste of time. But Naomi also found lots of other people who think Twitter is an awesome business tool.

I was not convinced, but the release of Yammer this week at TechCrunch 50 made me think again.

Here's how Yammer's creators--led by David Sacks at Geni--describe the value:

Yammer is a tool for making companies and organizations more productive through the exchange of short frequent answers to one simple question: What are you working on? As employees answer that question, a feed is created in one central location enabling co-workers to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions, and share links and other information. Yammer also serves as a company directory in which every employee has a profile and as a knowledge base where past conversations can be easily accessed and referenced.

There a lot of interesting ideas here, particularly how Yammer leverages the trend toward the consumerizaiton of IT:

Unlike traditional enterprise tools which must be installed by the company's IT department, anyone in a company can start their Yammer network and begin inviting colleagues. This means that Yammer can spread virally through a company like a consumer social network.

But instead of fighting the IT department, Yammer actually uses that as an into the IT department:

The basic Yammer service is free, but companies can pay to claim and administer their networks. The cost is $1 per employee per month, after a free three-month trial period. Companies who claim their network can configure their own security requirements by setting stricter password policies or restricting use to their office or VPN.

It remains to be seen how useful Yammer will actually be in business settings. I worry about users wasting their own and others' time with a constant stream of silly and pointless micro-posts. But even that has some value. Among other things, I like the fact that Yammer provides information on presence, and depending on what people actually post, even intelligent presence.

Obviously, the TechCrunch 50 judges were also impressed. Check it out for yourself: Yammer.com