Ryan Singel
Business

Microsoft Bringing Social Networking to Outlook (Oh, No!)

Wednesday was a good day for Google’s enterprise software business as competitor Microsoft announced plans to incorporate Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn updates within its flagship enterprise product, Outlook. The move could get Outlook banned in offices around the world by buttoned-down IT folks bound by corporate policy, who now have reason turn their school-marm firewall […]

Wednesday was a good day for Google's enterprise software business as competitor Microsoft announced plans to incorporate Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn updates within its flagship enterprise product, Outlook.

The move could get Outlook banned in offices around the world by buttoned-down IT folks bound by corporate policy, who now have reason turn their school-marm firewall rules on Microsoft Outlook. And those who love their e-mail pure of distracting Web 2.0 noise might be tempted to turn to Gmail's enterprise edition -- which as yet has no Buzz inside.

Microsoft dominates the market for enterprise office productivity tools, but has come under increasing pressure from online innovators like Google and Zoho that offer businesses decent alternatives at significant discounts.

As Microsoft explains:

First, we’re proud to announce the public beta of LinkedIn for Outlook, which will enable our millions of Office 2010 Beta users to connect the Outlook Social Connector to a public network for the first time. Second, we're excited to announce partnerships with Facebook — the most popular social Web site in the world, and MySpace — a leading social platform connecting people through expression, content, and culture. [...]

Our vision for Outlook (and the OSC) is to provide a communications hub that is vital to both professional and personal communications; by integrating with both Facebook and MySpace, Outlook 2010 enables you to connect not only to co-workers and colleagues, but with all of your friends and family within your Outlook Inbox.

Current beta testers have access to the LinkedIn feature, which puts a profile picture, contact info and status updates next to any email sent from a LinkedIn user. The addition will be familiar to users of Xobni, a four-year old startup whose Outlook plug-in sidebar adds LinkedIn profiles, contact information and e-mail history with a given contact next to incoming messages.

The move comes just days after Google turned its consumer Gmail service into a social networking/publishing model with Buzz. That led many feeling like they'd been opted into more than they wanted -- a problem Microsoft is avoiding -- at least for now -- by making its connections to social networks voluntary and experimental.

Only yesterday, Google started including MySpace status updates in its search results -- another possible stumble in the race to include real-time updates in search results which could similarly alienate business users.

One wonders if Outlook can retain its reputation as a serious, work productivity tool while including Facebook and MySpace updates. Microsoft is guessing that the workplace of the future will rely heavily on online networking -- thus, requiring this update, but we'll see if corporate IT departments agree.

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