messenger

In September 2010, when Microsoft announced a feature that would let Hotmail users chat with their Facebook friends from their hotmail accounts, it was restricted to 6 countries – US, UK, France, Brazil, Germany, and Russia. Yesterday, they announced that the feature would be available to all hotmail users worldwide. This means that the 250 million Facebook users who also use Hotmail can now use Facebook Chat. Recently, Messenger got this feature globally too. So it was only a matter of time. They also took a jab at Google, saying that tough Google had beaten them to adding a chat feature to email, they have gone a step further and integrated it with Facebook. According to the blog post making the announcement, since the feature was made available through MSN Messenger, 2.5 million people connected their Facebook Accounts with Windows Live taking the total number of users who have done so, to 20 million. If you are interested in using it, you’ll have to link your Facebook account with your Windows Live Account. You can do that here . It normally takes a few minutes to for the accounts to link in the background. Once they have, all you need to do to start an IM conversation with a Facebook friend is to click on their name. ( Image Credit ) Just last week, Microsoft announced a new Bing Toolbar with deep Facebook integration. Bing even has access to Facebook data. This cozy relationship between Microsoft and Facebook is bound to be making Google at least a little uncomfortable. Google is yet to have a ‘win’ on the Social Web, and on the other hand it seems that Facebook is gaining popularity among small business owners for ads – an area that is Google’s forte. As interesting as this feature sounds though, it isn’t going to pull me away from Gmail. But Hotmail users probably will enjoy it. Have you tried it? Let us know? REGISTER FOR WATSUMMIT – INDIA’S FLAGSHIP SUMMIT ON DIGITAL MEDIA REGISTER NOW! Related Posts Microsoft India Gets Innovative, Introduces New Email Domain For India! Amazon Kindle & Live Messenger Get Facebook – Twitter Support WAT’s Up Online? – June 24, 2008 Microsoft-Yahoo-Google : Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai Microsoft India Launches Upgraded Version Of MSN LIVE Services For Indian Users!