back to article Microsoft connects Web2.0rhea dots in Outlook... bitch

Microsoft has inked deals with LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook, allowing the Web 2.0 outfits to embed their tech in the software giant’s Outlook Social Connector, which will feature in the Office 2010 mail client. Redmond first announced OSC in November last year when it released a beta of the Office 2010 suite. Today’s …

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  1. Gulfie
    Thumb Up

    A change of tack!

    Makes a change from Microsoft observing the popularity of some site or other, launching their own version and pushing that instead.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    Microsoft

    "...that hasn’t stopped Microsoft from trying to be the firm’s number two..."

    Shouldn't that read "...that hasn't stopped Microsoft from repeatedly releasing a pile of firm number twos."?

  3. The Beer Monster
    Grenade

    Oh FFS

    The first suit that asks for it here will get this post icon where the sun shineth not.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    What is the point?

    Outlook has always been aimed at the business user. And the business user has no interest in their staff accessing social networking sites. So unless Microsoft are aiming Outlook at the home user why would they even consider this?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Yep

      I was thinking something like that. We go out of our way to block access to social network sites. I hope there will be a way to not install this crap!! That is if we end up installing it. Due to their monopoly position we probably will, sometime in 2020!

    2. Tim Bates
      Thumb Down

      Me too...

      I couldn't help but wonder exactly how much business time and internet MS is intending to try and waste here. Outlook was never targetted at home users, and most businesses don't like social networking sites due to the time wasting.

      WTF are they thinking?

    3. TeeCee Gold badge
      Unhappy

      Yes, but.

      Remember here that one of the hot topics amongst the chair-polishing fraternity is "how do we use this social meejah thingy?". This in turn leads to a Policy Decision which says that future IT purchases must have "social meejah thingy" in them somewhere.

      The correct question here is "do we need this shit?". That never gets asked 'cos the tech pages of the Financial Times are busily crowing the virtues of the "social meejah thingy" and how its bound to make millions for everyone, leaving those not involved as busted dinosaurs.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Ohhhhh Nooooooooooooooooo

    Just Fucking Run......................

    The quantum leap from ID theft to Life Theft - has just been created.

    To their profit and your expense.

    Runnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn for your life.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Social Networks ...

    ... seem to be blocked in most businesses so I can't see them allowing Social Network emails into Outlook.

    Outlook doesn't (currently) ship with M$ Orifice, cheapskate edition, maybe version 2010 will.

    http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/products/FX101635841033.aspx

  7. LordBrian
    Coat

    Why

    I spend all my time blocking this stuff so why would I want it built into a professional app.

  8. The Cube
    Flame

    Infection vector

    Oh god no. Now Internet Destroyer and Outlook can combine in a malware security hole fest and send a social networking email, rootkit wormy thing through a nice Flash vulnerability and bugger your system (and all your 'friends') in an entirely new and unrecoverable way.

    Thanks for the new vulnerability Microsoft, have you got shares in one of the botnet operators?

    Oh, as for "the OSC will respect that privacy", what, you mean like ArseBook does? Great, I'll just go and post my bank statement in the warez group now shall I?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Eehhh?

    But we're always being told how much time is wasted in companies by people using Facebook/Myspace etc, etc, etc.....

    And now Microsoft are going to make it so you don't even have to leave Outlook to waste time ..... marvellous.

    OK I can see that LinkedIn might be handy for professional contacts and some companies may well find Facebook (for Fan Pages and apps) and Myspace useful but it sounds like someone somewhere might have lost the plot a bit again.

  10. Warren 2

    Social Networking in Outlook

    Installed the Outlook / linked in connector today which activates the social networking connector. It sent the Office 2010 beta into an unrecoverable crash spiral. Re-installing as we speak - Thanks MS.

  11. Mike VandeVelde
    Megaphone

    second??

    LinkedIn - http://press.linkedin.com/linkedin-partners-ibm-lotus-notes

    Twitter - he he he

    Facebook - ha ha ha

    "IBM has also inked a deal with online professional networking company LinkedIn so Lotus users will be able to link to their LinkedIn networks from Lotus mail and other applications. Ditto for internet-phone provider Skype and online customer-relationship-management vendor Salesforce.com, which also have integration deals with IBM for the LotusLive product."

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/19/ibm_lotusphere_sap_rim/page2.html

    Skype - http://about.skype.com/2009/01/skype_and_ibm_collaborate_on_l.html

    (plus there is http://skytus.com/ )

    oh alright:

    Twitter - http://lekkimworld.com/attentionotes

    and I guess if you must:

    Facebook - http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf/dx/Sync_your_Facebook_Events_%28and_Friends_Birthdays%29_to_your_Lotus_Notes_8.5_Client_Calendar

  12. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Or....

    ...just use Xobni. Maybe doesn't as much, but I bet it's a 1000x times quicker. Search cetainly is.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Coffee/keyboard

    Look on the bright side

    This marks such a crescendo of the Web 2.x hype that the bubble has to implode soon

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Pint

      No way

      With the circle jerk extending into corps like MS and IBM it's going to go on forever. It's remarkable, really. I didn't think it could get any worse and now it has.

      Beer is the only answer now. Lots of beer. Hopefully my liver will BSOD before my customers start requesting this.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    why ?

    This continuous push to integrate disparate services sounds like a open invitation to phishers, spammers and general ne'er do wells.

    Don't MS ever learn ? Sometimes it's a good thing to keep critical apps and software toys discrete from each other.

    This will be a clear indicator for the ability of an IT department to secure their env. "Hey lads - they left that stupid facebook thing in outlook - fire up your torrent clients !"

  15. Bilgepipe
    Gates Horns

    Great

    My employer would be over the moon with the its staff adding Farcebook and Twatter to Outlook.

    Again, MS clutching at whatever is popular.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Sure to mess it up

    This sounds like another nightmare in the making for anyone foolish enough to tick the 'yes please!' box.

    Occasionally I used to have to visit MSN groups to read something linked from elsewhere. This always seemed to need a .net, passport, MSN ID, Live ID or whatever they'd changed the name to on that particular week. To get one of these usually needed a hotmail address, - another tortuous signup with a 2 month lifespan when (inevitably unused). Only occasionally could I get one of these services to accept the yahoo ID I actually used for such junk. It amazed me the way the process would bounce you from one domain to the other without rhyme or reason and you'd still end up with it saying you'd missed a field that was obviously filled in.

    Eventually I simply gave up following the links and stuck to ones on Yahoo, who generally make it fairly simple.

    How on earth can you get it so wrong, so comprehensively, so predictably and so often and still have 'market analysts' talk about you as if you'd just made the odd tactical error but are basically sound rather than the dictionary definition of FAIL?

    Bloody good job MS don't make ships, planes or nuclear plants or we'd all be really fucked.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Jobs Horns

      Roger that one.

      Is that just really fucked - or really, really, really fucked?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Noooooooooooooooo

    Why is it that people - other than the generally clueless who think finding the PC's on button is an achievement, are all fucking horrified at Microsoft's latest and greatest innovation of fitting barn doors on the outhouse - minus the door?

    Why do I sense in the force - "a disaster of unfathomable proportions "?

    I view Microsoft's "rice paper" brick wall security in the same sense as swallowing the bait and then after shitting out the hooks - only to have to wind the line back onto the fishing pole.

    Horribly "Epic Fail".

  18. Neil Gardner
    Thumb Down

    Why use Outlook

    Outlook integrates really well with the Microsoft ecosystem, a Exchange client par excellence. Wow!! But why use Outlook to update your facebook account when you can use your mobile phone without letting your boss know all your contacts?

  19. Eddie Johnson
    FAIL

    Just 2 Quick Questions

    Why?

    And

    Who Cares?

    I almost look at this as a Darwinistic experiment - take all the 'tards who use these social networking sites, get them using the worst mail client ever created, grab a beer and wait for the fun. I see a headline like "2,000,000 Email and MySpace Accounts Hacked, MS Software Flaw Blamed."

    Oh and just to prove MS still thinks its 2007 they have a deal with MySpace which even the slowest of the slow have fled yet they don't have a deal with Twitter where the cutting edge dweebs are gathering. Do I need a hotmail account to sign up?

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