Microsoft Outlook is already a multi-user product, with features like contact management and calendaring and scheduling. Now Microsoft is adding native support for the most popular social networks, including the work/business site LinkedIn, so people can stay connected with friends and colleagues all from one place.
Datamation has the story.
Microsoft continues making strides in linking its Outlook e-mail client to popular social networking services, today announcing that business networking site LinkedIn is now offering a beta tool for integrating user activity into Outlook 2010, while consumer social networking giants Facebook and MySpace sign on for similar efforts.
Announced in November, the Outlook Social Connector for Outlook 2010 provides “a set of new features that bring together communications history, contact information, and professional and social networking information into the Outlook experience,” according to a post on the Official Microsoft Blog. Initially, LinkedIn had been one of the first to sign on to support the software.
And as a result of this week’s developments, LinkedIn now offers a tool that enables a user to link Outlook with their social networking activity via the Social Connector.
“With LinkedIn for Outlook, you will be able to connect your LinkedIn account to view your colleagues’ status updates and photos right next to an e-mail they just sent you,” a Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) spokesperson said in an e-mail to InternetNews.com. The LinkedIn connector also enables users to get colleagues’ latest contact information updated to their contact cards in Outlook, the spokesperson added.
