Outlook 2010 Becomes Hub for LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace

Windows Phone 7 is not the only Microsoft product designed to act as a social networking hub, as Microsoft is also positioning Outlook 2010 as the desktop connection bridging together, and centralizing data from websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace. Whether customers will embrace the added functionality of Outlook 2010 or not it still remains to be seen, however, it is clear that the next generation Office email client has evolved in accordance with end users’ increasing focus on social networking.

“We’re proud to announce the public beta of LinkedIn for Outlook, which will enable our millions of Office 2010 Beta users to connect the OSC to a public network for the first time. Second, we're excited to announce partnerships with Facebook — the most popular social Web site in the world, and MySpace — a leading social platform connecting people through expression, content, and culture,” revealed Dev Balasubramanian – Outlook product manager and Michael Affronti – Outlook program manager.

For LinkedIn for Outlook, Microsoft has partnered with LinkedIn in order to bring content from the world’s top professional network right into the Outlook Inbox. According to Microsoft, following the integration of LinkedIn for Outlook, the email client will be able to deliver status updates and photos for contacts, grab contact information automatically, and even synchronize mobile phones with Outlook.

“Our vision for Outlook (and the OSC) is to provide a communications hub that is vital to both professional and personal communications; by integrating with both Facebook and MySpace, Outlook 2010 enables you to connect not only to co-workers and colleagues, but with all of your friends and family within your Outlook Inbox,” Affronti added.

By mid-June 2010, when Office 2010 is planned for general availability, the Outlook Social Connector will be able to pull a variety of information from Facebook and MySpace and deliver it in Outlook, including friends’ activities, photos, and status updates. In order to indeed transform Outlook into their social networking hub, users will need to download the Office 2010 Beta, then Outlook Social Connector (32-bit only) and subsequently the LinkedIn download for the Outlook Social Connector.

Office 2010 Beta 14.0.4536.1000 is available for download here.

LinkedIn for Outlook 2010 is available for download here.
Outlook Social Connector 32 bit (Beta) is available for download here.