Social Connector Beta is Available for Outlook 2007 and 2003 – Social Networking in Outlook

I have Outlook 2010 loaded on a Virtual Hard drive for testing purposes but for my main communication area I am still using Office 2007/Outlook, which is was is advised for a “production” machine. Today I found that the Outlook Social Connector is available for 2007 and 2003 so I added it on. You can watch the review on the video below which is in Silverlight so if you don’t have the browser add on, you should see a prompt with instructions to add it.

The Office 2010 site has more information on how the Social Connector works.

After installing the Social Connector, and open Outlook you will see this window. Click on the blue link to add LinkedIn. So far it is the only one available. It will open your browser to install the LinkedIn add on. In the news the last couple of days I have read where Facebook is going to be available real soon too.

Close Outlook, download and install.

Restart Outlook and this screen appears.

Type in name and password here.

The message shows you are now connected to Linked In.

Here’s a screenshot of Hugo Ortega and we are already connected on LinkedIn so you can see it shows his profile here and the last email where I am bugging him to send some MDs to the blog in Australia (grin). Hugo is very connected guy with social networks too and is a MVP with Microsoft and has a Tablet PC business down under. Notice too that I also use Xobni, and both will work together. Obviously the average person may not want both but I do a lot of testing so I am loaded up with Outlook add ons that I use all the time. I love to make Outlook do the work for me whenever I can!

You can also toggle between views and see the LinkedIn avatar picture used.

I may not want this window exposed all the time so there’s 2 arrows to use to send the window to a minimized state so you can use the Social Connector when you want the visual and information. It indexes all your email information and you have a lot of shortcuts available for each email too, answer, categorize, and more so you don’t have to go back to the toolbar at the top, less moving of the mouse. I like that.

So far so good. BD

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Back in November, 2009 we introduced the Outlook Social Connector and announced our first partnership with LinkedIn. The Outlook Social Connector is a set of new features that bring together communications history, contact information, and professional and social networking information into the Outlook experience. Most importantly, it brings all of your friends, family and colleagues into one place, making it easier than ever to stay in touch with the people you care about.

Today we’re expanding that reach in two ways:

1. The LinkedIn download for the Outlook Social Connector is available today at www.LinkedIn.com/outlook.
2. We’re announcing new Outlook integrations with Facebook, the leading social website in the world, and MySpace.