Microsoft is going to officially announce the integration of FaceBook, MySpace and Windows Live Messenger in the Outlook application.
Last year, Microsoft released OutLook Social Connector, a plugin that synchronizes social networking feeds with Outlook contacts, offering users real time information about the actions of their contacts on social networks. This way, users will quickly find out which are the most recent messages posted on the social networks.
The first step was made with the integration of LinkedIn, the company announcing at that time that the next social networks in the list will be Facebook and MySpace. Microsoft lives up to their promise now, and they will announce not only the Facebook integration, but also MySpace and Live Messenger support.
For the new improved version of Outlook Social Connector, specialists from Microsoft and Facebook have worked together.With the integration of Facebook, users will be able to display in Outlook the profile photos of their contacts, and they can also attach the contact name. Also, Outlook will display in the Inbox the news posted by the contacts on the social network. This way, between emails, a user can quickly check the status updates of the contacts.
Outlook Social Connector ( OSC ) is integrated in Office 2010, but Office 2003 and Office 2007 users will also have the option to download a OSC version. Outlook Social Connector will also allow a stream of content from Sharepoint and Windows Live, and the next Windows Live Messenger version will offer a similar plugin.
Paco Contreras, Microsoft Group Product Manager, said that the Facebook integration will also get real time updates. This means that any status change of the contacts will be automatically placed in the inbox, without the user having to refresh.
The Facebook integration also has limitations: with the exception of displaying the friend requests, Outlook doesn’t allow posts like “Like” or status changes through Outlook – at least not for the moment.Microsoft Officials said that the next step in this direction is to offer a richer experience, through the integration of the option that the user can send data to the social network, as well as improving the OSC by adding other social network support.
