Inspired by yesterday's post, I started thinking about unconventional ways to use online tools, but in more of a business capacity. For instance:

Use Delicious for your media clippings: Lots of businesses collect clippings about their industry, their competition and their mentions in the media. They get printed and circulated around the office for casual reading. Why not have a group Delicious account that everyone can submit to and read articles from (complete with tags, categories, etc.)? Plus you'll be doing your part for the environment and staff will be able to access those clippings from just about any computer.

Google Reader: More for blogs, Google Reader has a great share function to let people know exactly what you're reading and you can recommend an especially good posting to a specific user.  Plus it has a commenting section so you can exchange thoughts on the post with co-workers. All your staff needs is a Google account. (I could write an entire post on Google's free tools, but another time).

Flickr as your company's photo album: Why recreate the wheel and build a photo album on your intranet?  If your company is doing some really cool excursions or events, have staff bring cameras and submit their own photos instead of always having one designated photographer. You can make the account private if you choose, but why not keep it public? Plus it might be a competitive hiring incentive to show prospective employees the cool things they can expect working for you.

Group Blog: As a fun extra, some companies have pet blogs where employees can post pictures and write-ups about their animals. There's no direct business upside (except for morale), but it's a nice thing for your company to support and helps acclimatize your staff to social web trends.

I'm sure there are a lot of companies already doing these exact things, and perhaps not all of them are suitable depending on your companies size or culture. But maybe trying one or two would be a fun experiment. What online tools is your company using or putting their own spin on?