Outlook Facebook Social Connector is now available (and Outlook 2003/2007 support)

Ok, this isn’t for everybody. A third of you have sworn never to sign up for Facebook, a third of you are grumbling about getting off of Facebook (though I don’t see it 😉 and a third of you will be all over this…

But, the Facebook Social Connector for Outlook is out as well as support now for Outlook 2003 and 2007 (cool, backwards support, nice Microsoft!). Check it out!

Click here for a short video and details for how to get hooked up: http://blogs.office.com/b/office_blog/archive/2010/07/13/connect-to-facebook-and-windows-live-with-the-outlook-social-connector.aspx

Figure 1 : a Sample of the net result

And how to get it…

Figure 2 : In Outlook 2010, open an email, go to the bottom and click the Add button

Figure 3 : Choose Next to get started

Figure 4 : Choose view social network providers available online

Figure 5 : choose Facebook (or MSN, etc.)

Then download and run the related executables. Note, even if you have 64bit Windows, you want to get the version that is compatible with Office (i.e. 32bit for Office 2010 32bit, etc. even on 64bit Windows host). After installing the connectors, open up Outlook again and add the new social connectors by following the steps above.

Figure 6 : Cool, Outlook integrated Facebook status