Microsoft has announced a new update to its Outlook Social Connector (OSC) platform yesterday that allows Outlook users to view their social network connections while they are perusing their email.

 

OSC integrates social networking site Facebook as well as Windows Live Messenger into Outlook and according to Albie Bester, head of Microsoft South Africa’s Office business, it synchs social networking feeds with your Outlook contacts, giving you an immediate update on what they are doing and thinking.

 

“When you combine this with other social networks like LinkedIn, MySpace, Windows Live Messenger, and Outlook data, you get a very detailed history of your interaction with your contacts, as well as an at-a-glance look at their activities and interests. Knowing that a potential client just returned from a trip to Hawaii can be all that you need to have the upper hand against your competition,” explained Bester.

 

Redmond’s OSC will also pull Facebook profile photos enabling you to put a face to your Outlook contacts and can pull the news feeds of your contacts into your Outlook inbox. Users will now be able to see their Outlook contacts’ Facebook status updates, picture uploads and wall posts.

 

Outlook 2003 and 2007 users can download (around 13.2 MB) the latest version of the Outlook Social Connector from the Microsoft Download Center, while Outlook 2010 users can get it as an update.