Connecting to others via social media continues to grow exponentially. I can remember the day someone mentioned Twitter and I said “Twitter! What’s that?” I then assumed you must be a Twit to Tweet, but boy was I wrong on so many levels. Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft Vine, Messenger, Yahoo IM, Live Spaces; the list goes on and on. While Microsoft may have taken a little while to ‘catch on’ to the social media phenomena, they are Wizards at integration. This is no less the case with Office 2010. Not seen in the Technology Preview, I was surprised to see a small area at the bottom of the reading pane that contains the name of the sender and a listing of all those persons the email was addressed to. Hmmm… what is this?
Clicking the ^ on the right-hand side expands this newly discovered techno-geek dream toolbar. What! Can Microsoft be embracing this social media phenomena? I think so. Let’s take a look at what we have to play with.
This makes Outlook the ultimate source of integrated news, feeds and updates for my friends. Here are the available options:
- Clicking on the home Icon provides me a list of All Activities for this person
- Clicking on the RSS Feed icon provides me a listing of activities for this person scoured from any feeds I’ve set-up for them
- Clicking on the Mail icon searches through All Outlook Folders and provides a listing of the emails we’ve exchanged
- Clicking on the Calendar Icon looks at any public calendars for scheduled events (including my Outlook Calendar)
- Clicking on the Call Out Icon provides a list of status updates from other Social Networking sites for this person (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.)
Pretty cool huh? My interest is way up at this point to put it mildly, in reality I’m stoked! Gotta set this up NOW! Clicking the + Add Icon brings up the following dialog to set up my Social Networking sites.
It’s doing what Microsoft does best (integrating various technologies into one Uber Application that does what I want it to!)
But….
But…
But…
It’s just a teaser for now…
Clicking the Next button brings up another dialog…
The only provider currently available is SharePoint. Clicking Add Network only allows for adding another SharePoint site at this time. Clicking the link at the top for ‘More Social Network Providers Available Online’ brings you to this page on the web.
Seems like we have to wait a bit longer to add other Social Networks, but I’m excited at the potential of this nice feature. Jamie T. had a nice post about micro formats and Microsoft’s reluctance to adapt this technology for Windows Live. While not exactly micro format technology, it includes the elements defined for micro formats and is certainly a step in the right direction when it comes to connecting Office to other social networking sites.
For Technogran, Windows Live Mail is free and I absolutely love it for reading/responding to Newsgroup Feeds and other syndications, I love the features provided in Outlook and will happily pay for such features. Microsoft is a great web citizen when it comes to providing awesome products free of charge for the masses to use. In short order, downloading the Windows Live suite of products allow you to do most everything one could want to do when it comes to interacting with others on the web.
Till next time, I’ll keep pushing buttons and clicking icons while test driving the new Office 2010 Beta release.
(* Photo from http://jan.freedomblogging.com/files/2009/10/social-networking.jpg)
