Windows Live Links Up With LinkedIn

Microsoft said that its Windows Live group, which produces free online consumer and small business products, is partnering with the leading business-oriented social network — LinkedIn.

The ties mean that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows Live users will be able to link between LinkedIn and Windows Live services such as Hotmail and Messenger in order to share contacts, activities and updates.

“With over 75 million members in over 200 countries and a new professional joining approximately every second, LinkedIn is clearly a leader in professional social networking that we’re excited to partner with,” Jeff Kunins, a group program manager for social networking for Windows Live, said in a post to the Inside Windows Liveblog Thursday.

Windows Live is no diminutive set of services either. Microsoft says it had 500 million Windows Live IDs as of April 2010 — and in February the company boasted that it had 300 million users of Live Messenger. A user needs to have a Live ID in order to get a Live Messenger account.

In providing what Kunins called “deep integration,” the updated services let users automatically link contacts among Messenger, Hotmail and other Windows Live products, as well as deliver prioritized updates.

“When you make the LinkedIn connection with Windows Live, your LinkedIn contacts are automatically linked to the same contact you already have stored in Windows Live, so that you have one record with the combined set of information. Now you can compose and send email to your LinkedIn contacts right from Hotmail,” Kunins said.

This is just the latest partnership deal that Microsoft has struck with LinkedIn. In November, the software giant inked a similar deal with LinkedInto connect with the Outlook 2010 email client.

The integration doesn’t stop there, Kunins added.

“You probably wouldn’t think to associate photos with your LinkedIn activities, but with people tagging in [Live] Photo Gallery, for example, you could tag a photo of someone you saw at a conference, because it’s always helpful to put a face to a name,” he said.

The ability to link between LinkedIn and Messenger is available now. Microsoft is rolling out LinkedIn features for Hotmail globally over the next three weeks, “depending on where LinkedIn is available,” the company said.

Stuart J. Johnston is a contributing writer at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @stuartj1000.

RELATED NEWS AND ANALYSIS

• Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Driving Greater Equality

  FEATURE |  By James Maguire,
  December 16, 2020

• AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  December 11, 2020

• Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  December 04, 2020

• Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  November 18, 2020

• Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA

  FEATURE |  By Guest Author,
  November 10, 2020

• Top 10 AIOps Companies

  FEATURE |  By Samuel Greengard,
  November 05, 2020

• What is Text Analysis?

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  November 02, 2020

• How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 29, 2020

• Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 23, 2020

• The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 16, 2020

• Top 10 Chatbot Platforms

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  October 07, 2020

• Finding a Career Path in AI

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  October 05, 2020

• CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science

  FEATURE |  By Guest Author,
  September 25, 2020

• Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 25, 2020

• Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2021

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  September 22, 2020

• NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 18, 2020

• Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By James Maguire,
  September 14, 2020

• Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By James Maguire,
  September 13, 2020

• IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 11, 2020

• Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality

  FEATURE |  By James Maguire,
  September 09, 2020