I can see your Facebook updates...in Outlook?

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Microsoft today launched Facebook integration for Outlook via a new social plug-in. See the story a http://mashable.com/2010/07/13/outlook-facebook/. What does this mean for you?

Your personal Facebook information and activity will be more closely tied to your business network. Period.

If you are “friends” with someone on Facebook and exchange email with them in Outlook, this plug-in will show that person’s Facebook activity in the Outlook experience. Even if you don’t have this plug-in on Outlook, your information will still appear in Outlook for anyone who has the Outlook plug-in and is your Facebook friend.

I unfortunately cannot provide a screenshot of my business inbox, but I can show you how I see Facebook status updates when I am composing mail to my boss, Kristen. She I are Facebook friends, and even though she doesn’t have the plug-in, I do so I can see her Facebook updates in the New Mail Message window.

Outlook also provides similar plug-ins for MySpace and LinkedIn, but considering the nearly half-billion Facebook users and dominance of Outlook for business email, this is probably the most impactful social integration for business yet.

Of course, this isn’t all bad. You have immediate access to information about people in your business network if you choose to use the plug-in, and that could create for better working relationships. You can skip those office parties and team offsites to get to know your coworkers. You've got a Facebook plug-in for that!

On the other hand, you will want to be sure that you do not post photos, status updates or other content that you wouldn’t want your colleagues or business network to see in their inboxes. Likewise, you may want to delete unflattering messages that friends have left on your wall. They, too, will appear in front of your colleagues.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks. If/when Outlook integrates more robust features like Facebook photos, movies, calendar, friends, mutual friends, location updates,  etc., then we've got a whole new privacy issue at hand, which affects businesses -- and their legal and HR departments. When Facebook and Outlook start to look the same, that'll be a tough transition for employees to figure out. Things could get ugly. At least this go around Facebook will be able to share some of the legal costs with Microsoft.

I assume that Facebook will continue to create more intelligent filters so that you can determine who in your network can see your content through a plug-in like this, but until then I would assume that anyone in your Facebook network is eligible to see your personal information and activity on Outlook.

On that note, I have some toga pictures to de-tag.

Married Friends

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I realize now that I'm married that I will soon be, if I'm not already, someone's "Married Friend." Urban Dictionary always steals my thunder for cool definitions, so I'm not even going to go there. Here's my cooler-than-Urban-Dictionary definition of "Married Friends":

a) People who have been married for as long as you have known them, and your friendship with them is inseparable from your friendship with their spouses

b) People who you only see when they are with their spouses and thus you refer to the couple as the same person by name (i.e. Pamanda)

c) Abbreviated "MF" for obvious reasons

As used in a sentence: "We were going to see our married friends Pamanda at midweek dinner, but Paolo has class on Wednesday nights so we won't be able to see those MFs until next week."

The "Married Friend" stamp can be undermined if and only if you have known a person before he or she was married. For example, I have known Wesley long before I was married and therefore I cannot be his Married Friend. I am just a plain old friend. However, if I meet a married couple through Wesley, they can only be MFs to me.

Here's the challenge with being a MF: It's tough to coordinate. I had a hard enough time keeping track of where I was supposed to be before I was married. Now Amanda and I have to keep both of our schedules in sync, and they mostly are anyway, but I don't always know if Amanda has planned some rogue event, or if I remembered to communicate to Amanda that I had an event come up. We've managed so far, but we also have just about every weekend of the summer planned out and somewhere in there I need to hang a new front door and build a fence.

Ain't that a MF?

I have to say that the greatest tragedy of having couple friends (MF-to-MF) is when you have to break-up with them. I call it a break-up because if you or your spouse can't maintain a friendship with one half of the MF then you can't be friends with them either, even if you get along with them or at least one of them yourself. You have to be clear about it. Just like marriage, it's an all or nothing proposition.

Of course, the beauty of being a MF is that you get to share all of your social experiences and friendships with your spouse, as it should be. And inherently you should be married to your best friend, which is why it's worth all of the surface level scheduling and strange couple (or MF-to-MF) friendships that you endure with your spouse.

No matter how I splice it, I'm now a MF for life, and I'll be a MF to everyone that I meet for the rest of my life. I suppose I should just embrace it, huh?

(In my best Samuel L. Jackson voice) "Pamanda is one hell of a MF."