Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has forged deals with LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook to connect their networks through its popular email and personal information manager, Outlook.
The company introduced Outlook Social Connector when it rolled out a beta of Microsoft Office 2010 last November. The OSC connects emails, contact information and networking sites within the Outlook application.
Microsoft also introduced a public beta of LinkedIn for Outlook, according to a blog post by Dev Balasubramanian and Michael Affronti, Outlook program managers.
Office 2010 beta users can now connect the OSC to a public network -- in this case LinkedIn -- for the first time, they said.
Using the OSC, users can view their contacts' status updates and photos next to their email messages. The OSC automatically updates the latest contact information from LinkedIn and allows users to invite colleagues to join LinkedIn from Outlook. The beta app also synchronizes mobile phones with Outlook.
Similar functionality for Facebook and MySpace -- called Facebook for Outlook and MySpace for Outlook -- will be available later this year as the official release of Office 2010 approaches
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