From Microsoft:
The first piece of news is the availability of the LinkedIn connector, which delivers on the partnership announced when we unveiled Outlook Social Connector and the beta last November. The second piece of news is Microsoft has added new partnerships with Facebook and MySpace for Outlook Social Connector. The official connectors built by MySpace and Facebook for Outlook Social Connector will be available for download in the first of half of this year.
You can get started today with the LinkedIn download which is available at www.LinkedIn.com/outlook. If you are already using the Office 2010 Beta, please download the latest version of the Outlook Social Connector from the Microsoft Download Center (this is also available for Outlook 2003 and 2007 users).
With LinkedIn for Outlook, you will be able to:
Connect your LinkedIn account to view your colleagues’ status updates and photos right next to an e-mail they just sent you.
Get your colleagues’ latest contact info from LinkedIn updated into their contact card in Outlook.
Grow your professional network directly from within your inbox.
The addition of Facebook and MySpace to Outlook Social Connector complements the existing relationship we have with LinkedIn by bringing social networking together with e-mail and contacts. Once live, Facebook and MySpace integration will enable users to bring social components into Outlook, such as profile pictures, photos and status updates. These partnerships, as well as an open API for anyone to build a connector for a social network, demonstrate the commitment to evolving Office 2010 to help people improve their productivity, stay in touch with the people they care about, and simplify their daily routine.