SharePoint Technology can be greatly used for Social networking capabilities. I already did a post regarding third party vendors delivering functionality on the SharePoint platform for social computing and networking.
Social computing, known under the name Web 2.0, is used for creating social networks, communities and other social contexts with the help of software and technology. Toolings delivered by Microsoft for social computing are mostly a part of larger products like Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007. Examples are blogs, wiki's, and more. But also kits like the Microsoft Community Kit which makes it possible for anybody to create a community based website based on templates, Web Parts and sources found in this kit. See my other post about this subject.
This whitepaper describes the differences compared to other social computing vendors. As stated on they website of Microsoft
"The whitepaper discusses the value of social computing for business, citing 2 customer references of large scale enterprise deployments, and the technologies that enable successful results from social computing. The whitepaper also addresses the business and technical benefits from using SharePoint Products and Technologies and how the platform differentiates compared to other social computing vendors. Social computing is not a passing trend, so organizations should think of this “new way of work” in context of a broader enterprise collaboration strategy."
Thanks to Bart Wessels for indicating the whitepaper.
You can download the whitepaper here