LinkedIn to bring first Outlook Social Connector in 2010

Softwares giant Microsoft Corp. announced today that professional network LinkedIn will be the first site to provide a connector for Outlook Social Connector in early 2010.

Kurt DelBene, senior vice president of the Office Business Productivity Group at Microsoft, who announced the news about Microsoft Office 2010 and other beta products in his keynote address at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC), revealed Microsoft's collaboration with social networking site for professionals LinkedIn for the development and sure release 1Q next year of Outlook Social Connector.

The Outlook Social Connector is "a new feature in Microsoft Office 2010 which brings communications history, business collaboration and social network feeds directly into Outlook, with support for Windows Live and SharePoint Server", DelBene said.

Meanwhile, Elliot Shmukler at the LinkedIn blog has posted:

LinkedIn will be the first networking site to support the Outlook Social Connector. The LinkedIn functionality will be available in early 2010. Our big belief is that you can be much more effective if you have your professional network close at hand, and you can leverage your online identity in the work you do on a daily basis. The Outlook Social Connector will bring your LinkedIn Professional Network to where you work – right within your e-mail inbox.

This means that you can keep up with LinkedIn connections right from your e-mail inbox.

One of the great things about LinkedIn is being able to learn what your professional connections are working on and thinking about. Just glance at the Network Updates on your LinkedIn homepage and you’ll be able to learn what articles & books your connections are reading, what conferences they are attending, and what questions they are asking and answering on LinkedIn. Many use this information to keep current with their industry and profession, as well as to learn new things and expand their horizons,

Shmukler explained.

The Outlook Social Connector (OSC) brings social views of your colleagues and friends right to your Inbox. As you read your e-mail messages, glance down at the new People Pane to see the picture, name, and title of the sender. A rich, aggregated collection of information about the sender is included.

Michael Affronti, Social Networking Addict & Outlook Program Manager, reveals interesting details about the OSC.

The OSC presents useful information including Communication history, Meetings, Attachments and Activity feeds. The OSC makes Outlook 2010 a social networking tool by connecting to the new social experiences in SharePoint 2010.

Commenters at the LinkedIn blog, however, encouraged the site to release the connector as early as possible before someone else does.