Today, Microsoft announces an exciting new addition to the upcoming Microsoft Office 2010 – the Outlook Social Connector. The Outlook Social Connector is designed to seamlessly bring communications history as well as business and social networking feeds into your Outlook experience.
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.
Here are three key benefits you get from this integration:
1. 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.
The Outlooks Social Connector makes this even easier – by automatically showing the latest activity (i.e. Network Updates) from any LinkedIn connection that sends you an e-mail. So now you can get the latest information from your LinkedIn network even without having to leave your inbox.
What’s more, for any connection with a public LinkedIn profile photo, you’ll even get to see their picture as you communicate.
2. E-mail your LinkedIn connections directly from Outlook
Know that perfect LinkedIn connection to help you with a business task or question but don’t remember their current email address? No longer do you have to go to the LinkedIn website to find their contact information before sending them a message, as your LinkedIn network is now available right within your inbox. Just start typing the name of a LinkedIn connection in the “To:” field of an Outlook message and the connections’ e-mail address from LinkedIn will automatically appear as if they are an existing Outlook contact. In fact, the Outlook Social Connector will create an Outlook Contacts folder for all of your LinkedIn connections and bring down their contact information, professional details, and picture from LinkedIn into Outlook.
3. Keep building your professional network from Outlook
Working with someone new but haven’t had a chance to connect with them on LinkedIn? By bringing professional networking to where you work, the Outlook Social Connector again makes it easy. Just click a button next to any e-mail you receive and instantly send an invitation to connect to the e-mail’s sender. It’s that easy.
We hope that these functions start bringing some of the key elements of your LinkedIn professional network to where you work – your Outlook e-mail inbox, sometime early next year. But these are certainly just the first steps. Let us know what else you’d like to see by leaving a comment below.
- Topics:
- LinkedIn Developer Network
Comments
Hey Elliot – I thought it would be good also mention LinkedIn’s partnership with our Outlook plugin Xobni. Users can get LinkedIn in Outlook right now by downloading xobni for free at http://www.xobni.com
Our users are loving the integration with LinkedIn and we’ve worked to perfect it over the past year of LinkedIn and Xobni’s partnership.
Matt Brezina
Founder, Xobni
You’re counting your chickens before they’ve hatched.
You won’t be the first until you release it. There’s plenty of time for someone to jump ahead of you if you wait until “early 2010″ to release
So how does one get their hands on the provider install, my Outlook 2010 is looking naked without Xobni… and this would REALLY help redress it
Bueller…. Beta…. Bueller….
@Erik,
As mentioned in the post, stay tuned for an update in early 2010. Thanks for the comments, everybody!
Nice work – these features alone will save me 30 minutes a day. Thanks a lot!
btw, you need a new, non-tilted profile picture
I see this becoming a very valuable tool for Microsoft.
Right now it’s only available for Sharepoint users. I’ve tested it today and it does look interesting. I can’t wait to see how it pans out and which social networks jump on board.
Can’t wait for this exiting new development. Will it only function on Word 2010?
It would be the kiss of death for a social network to try to go it alone without such connectivity to at least one major Email client. We just hope LinkedIn doesn’t go exclusive with just xobni and Microsoft.
SenderOK puts photo business cards in the Email header pane and works with webmail clients like Gmail, Yahoo and Live as well as Outlook 2003/7 (like xobni).
Google and Microsoft have announced this type of functionality for their clients only. xobni will have Outlook 2003/7 + Blackberry. Territories are being staked out.
Other client manufacturers will be asking LinkedIn for the same feed.
Will the same be available from other email applications, such as Thunderbird for example?
Already available for Lotus Notes
Plugin model lets you integrate with anything you like.
http://www.linkedin.com/lotus
As to us – we own a speech recognition engine and are almost ready to issue a product that will add voice navigation to LinkedIn. Basically, without any change to the portal User will be able to navigate through their connections and so on with own voice.
Hi, Elliott-
I’d like to mention this in the next edition of Microsoft Outlook for Dummies. Can you tell me who to contact at LinkedIn for more information? Thanks,
Bill Dyszel
Author, Microsoft Outlook for Dummies
@Bill,
I’ve fwded your request to Elliot. One of us will be contacting you shortly. Thanks!
I’m really confused, and I know this stuff WELL.
The LinkedIn Outlook toolbar and LinkedIn Browser toolbar currently exist, and are supposed to do some of what you advertise above. Of course, they just don’t work. I’ve tried them on multiple machines with multiple versions of Windows, and multiple friends of mine and blogoshpere friends of mine have also had cosntant problems with it.
Where does it work? Is it only on Macs? You should let us know, so we don’t waste time with buggy code. Label it “beta” if you have to, but don’t have it at the bottom of my LinkedIn home page for years, like you do now, and then tell us that in 2010 you’ll have something that works.
@Patrick – I use mine and have had no problems since an update that occurred a few months ago. Try installing and reinstalling the latest version available on the site. After doing so if you are still having problems contact customer service by clicking on the link at the bottom of the homepage. We have trained reps that can work with you to trouble shoot your specific issues.
The Outlook Toolbar system requirements are the following: Microsoft Windows XP/Vista, Microsoft Outlook XP (2002)/2003/2007.
The browser toolbars system requirements are vary by the browser you are using:
* Firefox Toolbar 3.1.2 (PC or Mac): Microsoft Windows XP/Vista; Mac OS X 10.2 or later. Firefox versions 2.0 and 3.0.
* Internet Explorer Toolbar 3.0.3.1100 (PC only): Microsoft Windows 2000/XP. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and 7.0
What about Thunderbird?
Also, I noticed that there is no way to export events. While this feature may be great with Outlook, what about Google Web Apps? All connection within LinkedIn only connects to Gmail; while professionals would be using Google Web Apps.
Are there any plans to either allow exporting of events through iCal links?
Or add to Google Calendar?
Or even just connect to Google Web Apps at all? This includes importing of contacts.
I’m with Marc on this. It is great to see an Outlook connection but it yet again ties people in to MS technologies and proprietary API’s.
Some move towards open standards would be great here and would open lots of opportunities for LI in the future. The growth of non-PC based systems is explosive at present, whether Mac based (or Linux, etc.), Netbooks, Mobile Phones and, of course, web-based (or cloud based as many people now seem to prefer, it being the latest buzz word).
What hope does LI and similar organisations have to stay current in these emerging markets unless people work together to adopt open standards?
@Julian- Check out our announcement about open APIs in this blog article…
Why should I not be concerned with security here? I intentionally use yahoo email for outside and more risky communication and keep outlook for internal, professional and known contacts only… am I missing something here?
Cheers Dirk and well done. I’ve seen the announcement and its a good move. Keep it coming!
Yep I think this would work nicely.
Any updates of when the connector will be available?
Does the http://www.xobni.com plugin work with Outlook 2010 Beta?
Hi,
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the great work Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
Jenni.
You might want to also try RedCritter. It has social Apps and a lot more. Silverlight developers can even create their own Apps that run inside Outlook. You can download it for free at http://www.redcritter.com
http://www.redcritter.com
Hi,
Does anybody know why my LinkedIn connector keeps reporting that I use an invalid username of password? The same credentials work when I log in to the website LinkedIn.
We have installed the OSC & LinkedIn add-in..seems to work, but I am not getting people’s contact info to show up. I get a yellow triangle warning icon and “Windows Desktop Search is not available”. Any ideas? Is it our network, or because it’s a beta and not all the features are showing up yet?
thanks, Christian
Hi,
I am also getting the same error message “Invalid Username or password” but same username and password works fine on website.
Thanks.
-Rahul
Yeah, I found the bug…
Special characters are not parsed by Linked Outlook connect…
Bastiaan, you need to change your password!!
Thanks.
-Rahul
I have the same problem eg I get the “Invalid Username…” msg. No special characters in the password… Anyone has any clue of this problem?
Fredrik…then problem might be something else. Try changing your linkedin password. At least it worked me after changing password.
Nice features, but need to fix the special characters issue (not displayed/imported correctly) and why can’t I see profile pictures?
@Christian- This issue with special characters should be resolved. If you go to http://www.linkedin.com/outlook you can download the newest version that includes the fix for this issue. I hope this helps.
Public works is a slightly broader term, it can include such things as: mines, schools, hospitals, water purification and sewage treatment centers.
Hi
I am using Office 2010 RTM 32 on Windows Ultimate 32. Some questions:
+ Are the contacts gathered in the “linkedin” contacts folder within outlook updated (I cant see any sign of this happening)?
+ None of the history appears in the outlook linkedin hisotry box (the news feed is downloading), are thetre any settings I should change, or is this a bug?
Just installed the latest version the only thing that happened was a new contacts folder called LinkedIn which has all the contacts.
None of the information is filled in the social tab though.
@Merill,
Please contact our customer service team. They’ll be able to troubleshoot the problem.
http://linkedin.custhelp.com/
it does not seem to work with Outlook 2010 64bit, or does it?
Hey everyone. We are hearing you loud and clear. We are working on a 64 bit version right now, but we do not have an expected release date yet. Keep your eyes open for it in the near future.
Derek Homann
LinkedIn Product Specialist
@Derek Homann
Hope you release this soon. LinkedIn on Outlook is way more important than Facebook or MySpace IMHO
I’m waiting for the 64 bit LinkedIn for Outlook too. I’m hoping someone posts the info on this blog so I know when to get it.
I’m really needing the 64-bit…bump
This would be great i am a heavy user of Linkdln. 64bit will be a great improvement when integrated with Outlook.
Is there any updates on the 64bit version?
It’s a long time since July 14th, when the last update on this was posted!
Any updates on 64bit version for outlook social connector
When 64 bit version will be available?
I have installed the latest version of the connector and the linkedin plugin with outlook 2003 SP3.
I have NO special charactors in the password at all and I contantly get a ‘invalid user name or password’ error. did anyone solve this? is it a proxy issue etc and if so what is the fix? HELP
Well, well…….2010 is almost over, and still no sign of the 64bit????
What is “near future” to Derek, is vastly different than near to me…
I installed the LinkedIn Toolbar about two months ago – the features and integration with Outlook woul dhave been SO useful! Sadly, it crashed my Outlook and I had to uninstall it again and that appears to be the experience of just about anybody I can find or read about. I agree with @Patrick OMalley that it should be labelled
‘Beta’ or something – how can software be distributed as a tool on a professional-oriented site like LinkedIn that so obviously DOES NOW WORK? Frustrating…
So I started reading this and looking at options presented like Xobni (looks pretty cool!), as well as the ‘LinkedIn for Outlook’. Trouble is, we are professionals, not geeks or hackers, and can ill afford installing buggy code or being test subjects.
My Outlook also has a connector to SugarCRM (similar to Salesforce) and I synch contacts with my iPhone as well. I worry that one or both of these options will cause me problems with one or more connections.
Anyone able to offer solutions, or definites? I presently use Outlook 2007, IE8 on a Vista laptop with SP2.
okay…this is getting a bit silly now…how long does it take to puta 64-bit version together?
Looking forward to 64bit version for outloook 2010!
this is really getting silly… where’s the 64-bit version?
silly? SILLY? This is WAY beyond silly!
Looking forward to 64bit version..
Looking forward to the 64-bit version!
Just upgraded my system last week from 32-bit to 64-bit, and must I say I really miss the Outlook Connector for LinkedIn.
Here you go! Took some digging to find this.
https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3143/kw/64%20bit%20outlook
I have been trying to get this to work in my outlook and nothing happens. I am running Xobni and the linkedin option isnt working there either.
I am on windows 7 with outlook 10 exchange.
Any help.