The social media world just recently got a rude awakening when Google dropped the bombshell named “Google Buzz” into the scene. Now that everyone’s busy trying to predict how the new “social” Gmail is going to affect the future, Microsoft realized it can’t risk getting left behind.
Microsoft Outlook has now announced a public beta that lets Outlook sync with LinkedIn updates, with MySpace and Facebook to likely follow soon. Basically Outlook will be “bringing social networking into the inbox,” according to the words of Dev Balasubramanian, Microsoft product manager.
The new Outlook feature will be called Microsoft Outlook Social Connector, and basically aims to do the same thing that Google is doing with Buzz — except that Microsoft insists there won’t be any privacy issues with THIS rollout. Obviously a jab at the privacy issue that’s haunting Buzz right now.
Microsoft Office 2010 beta testers will be able to download the LinkedIn for Outlook program to see how it works. The same functionality should be extended to Facebook and MySpace within the year. Let’s see if this (and attempts by other companies, for that matter) will be able to hold a candle to Google Buzz — if the charts are to be believed, it’s only a matter of time before Buzz overtakes Twitter.
Via: Electric Pig
