Microsoft partners with Facebook, Bebo and more to exchange contact information
In a blog post this morning, John Richards, Director of Windows Live Platform at Microsoft, announces a set of new partnerships signed by Microsoft and 5 major social networks: Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged, and LinkedIn. From the blog post:
Starting today, we will be working with Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged and LinkedIn to exchange functionally-similar Contacts APIs, allowing us to create a safe, secure two-way street for users to move their relationships between our respective services. Along with these collaborations, Microsoft is introducing a new website at www.invite2messenger.net that people can visit to invite their friends from our partner social networks to join their Windows Live Messenger contact list.
So....this means instead of importing your contacts from you email account, csv file or manually typing them in, you can now head over to www.invite2messenger.net log in using your Windows Live ID and it will sync your contacts across the 5 social networks with your Windows Live account.
I've just tried it with my Facebook accounts, there were some initial teathing problems with SSL errors, but that's been sorted and have synched up my accounts.
