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Microsoft has rolled out an update to Office Social Connector that integrates Facebook into Outlook quite superbly. Previously Microsoft Social Connector supported LinkedIn and promised support for MySpace and Facebook in upcoming versions, read about it here. Now you can connect to Facbook from within Microsoft Outlook with Social Connector.

Other than Facebook integration, another major update to Social Connector is that it can now be used with Outlook 2003 as well as 2007 and 2010. Earlier version wasn’t compatible with Outlook 2003. So, now you can look into Facebook while checking your emails in Microsoft Outlook. Here is the official video showing all of the latest updates released for Outlook Social Connector:


Get Microsoft Silverlight

Download Outlook Social Connector (Facebook) for Outlook 2003 and 2007. Outlook 2010 users should install it from Windows Updates.

Download Windows Live Messenger Provider for Outlook

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Harmony for Google DocsYou can now access, share and edit Google Docs files right from your desktop using Microsoft Outlook. Harmony by Mainsoft adds a sidebar to Microsoft Outlook that lets you work with Google Docs files. It also sets you free from email attachments, you can drag and drop documents to Harmony sidebar and your documents are uploaded to Google Docs. Uploading documents to Google Docs via Outlook sidebar will automatically convert those documents into Google Docs format. Similarly, you can drag and drop your Google Docs files to your desktop which will be converted into Microsoft Word format. You can set file permissions for Google Docs files right from Outlook. Permissions can be set for Gmail contacts as well as for Outlook contacts.

Another great advantage with Mainsoft Harmony is that it easily converts your attachments into links. So, when you are sharing documents with your colleagues via attachments, actual files are not being stored in the email. Instead actual files will be uploaded to Google Docs and sharing link will be added in the email. All these features make Harmony for Outlook a useful collaboration tool that not only adds some great features to Outlook but also simplifies emails and attachments.

Harmony by Mainsoft is available for Google Docs as well as for SharePoint. It can be downloaded FREE.

Download Harmony for Google Docs

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MS Outlook 2010Microsoft Outlook has just got more social courtesy the new Social Connector that brings MySpace and Facebook integration into MS Outlook. Microsoft had also partnered with LinkedIn earlier and has now introduced LinkedIn for Outlook enabling users to get insights and alerts from their connections at LinkedIn. New partnerships with MySpace and Facebook mean that Outlook users will soon be able to check their MySpace accounts and update their Facebook status right from Microsoft Outlook. This announcement seems to be a response to Google Buzz, a tool that introduced the concept of integrating social networks right in your email boxes. Microsoft seems to have taken a step beyond that by integrating social networking capabilities in their desktop based software.

Microsoft Outlook Social Connector can turn MS Outlook into a desktop based social network with enough capabilities to compete with recently launched Google Buzz. Level of integration with MySpace and Facebook accounts, however, is not yet clear. It’s very likely to have features to enable you to receive and respond to your social networks feed in Outlook. It will be interesting how community responds to this move since Microsoft Outlook is widely used desktop based email software while MySpace and Facebook are considered as time wasters and are blocked by many. When users will be able to access their social networks on Outlook, it will either be yet another time waster for employees or will be a greater collaboration tool.

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