Chatter, which Salesforce unveiled at its Dreamforce conference in November, is essentially a social networking system for businesses to use within their organizations. Marc (Salesforce CEO) positions Chatter as follows : " The end of legacy collaboration software like Microsoft SharePoint and IBM Lotus Notes is here. " Is Microsoft cool again, in the smartphone world? " Start Chattering ... Salesforce introduced an invite-only beta for Chatter, its forthcoming collaboration service. "

of US online time in November – a pretty impressive figure, to be sure. The leap into profit, however, was entirely courtesy of its real-time search deals with Google and Microsoft – and commentators are iffy about whether the deals will be enough to sustain a revenue stream in 2010. Across the pond, comScore reports that the figures for holiday e-tail were up 5% year-on-year, hitting an astonishing $27 billion in online sales - a humongous $30 million of which was spent on virtual gift-giving Welcome to eModeration's round-up of all that is intriguing, alarming or odd in the world of social media, compiled by Kate Williams (@emodkate).

The panel session on Microsoft was well received at the San Francisco November event. For instance - not a promise but an intent - I would like to have some from the following: (LinkedIn or Facebook or Google), Salesforce, and (IBM or Microsoft). Microsoft SharePoint 2010: Win, Place, Or Show? Community voting is now open, if you find the sessions below of interest, please participate in the selection process. Also note, that while I submitted several presentations, that does not mean that I will end up moderating all of them if they end up being selected.