Back at the end of May 2008, Microsoft gave the audiences of TechNet and MSDN (also of the Expression website) a taste of new social bookmarking tools, tailored for the two portals. At that time, the offerings were made available as previews with no details available as to when the final implementation would be delivered. However, this is no longer the case. Starting with September, users of TechNet and the Microsoft Developer Network will be able to leverage the new social bookmarking additions.

"Back in May, just before TechEd North America, we released a preview version of our new social bookmarking app for MSDN, for TechNet, and for Expression. Since then, thousands of technical professionals from around the world have begun using it to save their web favorites online, share them with others, see what other technical pros are favoriting, and connect with others. (...) I'm happy to say that in early September, we plan on releasing a full version of the app - v 1.0," revealed John Martin, lead evangelist for Server & Tools Online (STO) at Microsoft.

The focus of the social networking tools is of course to build a closer integration between the communities that are orbiting around the MSDN, TechNet and Expression websites. In this context, the Redmond giant indicated that it considered tagging, and social bookmarking key ingredients of a recipe involving an advanced level of connectivity. Starting in early September, the tools will be accessible in no less than 12 languages, including: Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

Martin indicated "some new things to look for: Subscribe to Tags or People: with the new app, it will be easy to get an RSS subscription for that tag or person (as in, click the orange button). Browse & Find Users: search or browse to find people by their display name (e.g., mine is "johmar") and other criteria. Import Tools: Recognizing that a lot of people already have favorites saved in their browsers or in other social bookmarking sites, the new app will provide a tool for importing your favorites from Microsoft Internet Explorer and from Delicious. Bookmarking Widget: If you have your own blog or other website, our new bookmarking widget will make it easy for people to bookmark your pages directly to their social bookmarks on MSDN, TechNet, or Expression."