Microsoft has integrated Facebook and Windows Live Messenger into Outlook, bringing the newsfeeds of millions of Facebook users into inboxes.
Last year, Microsoft launched Outlook Social Connector, a plug-in that syncs social networking feeds with your Outlook contacts, giving you immediate data on what they are doing and thinking. It started last year with LinkedIn integration.
Now Outlook completes the cycle with not only Facebook integration, but support for Windows Live Messenger as well. The company is releasing the plug-in for Outlook 2003 and 2007 users as well, bringing Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Windows Live Messenger to millions of business and personal inboxes worldwide.
Facebook and Microsoft worked together to get the launch of Facebook’s integration in Outlook Social Connector right. One of the things they immediately highlighted was the pulling of Facebook profile pictures into Outlook.
Not only does it pull Facebook profile photos so that you can associate a name to a face, but it pulls the newsfeeds of your contacts into your inbox. When you’re looking at someone’s e-mail, you’ll also get a glance at their status updates, picture uploads and wall posts, among other activities.
When you combine that with LinkedIn, MySpace, Windows Live Messenger, and Outlook data, you get a very detailed history of your interaction with your contacts, as well as an at-a-glance look at their activities and interests.
E-mail isn’t inherently a “social” experience (it’s not a one-to-many platform), and attempts at integrating social into the inbox have mostly fallen flat. However, social data can be incredibly useful in the business world, especially when you need to understand what your client or colleague is thinking or doing right now.
