However, the Outlook Social Connector's ability to pull in information from LinkedIn (and, in the future, other social networks) makes it even more useful.

For example, the LinkedIn Social Connector adds a new Outlook Contacts folder composed only of your LinkedIn contacts -- even if you haven't added them to your normal Outlook contact list. The display of contacts in the LinkedIn folder is different from the normal Contacts display -- in the LinkedIn folder you'll see each contact's photo (if they have one on LinkedIn) and other information pulled from LinkedIn. Double-click a contact, and you'll see all their LinkedIn status updates and messages. To visit the LinkedIn page of any contact, click the Web Page address, and you'll be sent there.

This can also be confusing -- you can end up with two copies of contact information for those people you've added as an Outlook contact and who are also part of your LinkedIn network. A good way to solve this would be an option to have the LinkedIn contact information update your normal Outlook contacts.

If someone is not already a contact on LinkedIn, you can click an Add button to request that they become part of your LinkedIn network. However, you need to be careful when using this feature, because you may end up sending a request to someone to join your LinkedIn network even if they're not a member of LinkedIn. It would be better if the Outlook Social Connector checked whether someone was a member of LinkedIn, and allowed you to request that they join your LinkedIn network only if they are.