You can now check your Facebook status updates and add friends within Microsoft Outlook, thanks to an update to the Outlook Social Connector plugin.

Microsoft revealed on Monday two open source projects intended to improve interoperability with Microsoft Outlook files and even enable easier migrations from Outlook.

Nine months after Google daringly launched a sync tool to link its hosted Apps collaboration and communication suite with arch-rival Microsoft's Outlook PC software, results have been mixed.

Google has found a fix for a bug that affected Google Apps' Sync for Microsoft Outlook by preventing some e-mails from being downloaded from Gmail servers to the Outlook program on end-users' PCs.

Now under new management, MySpace is looking to reinvent itself and rise like a Phoenix from the ashes. The once dominant social networking site fell from nearly 70 percent of the social networking market, to only 30 percent in less than a year, and was plummeting on the verge of extinction.

Microsoft is transforming Outlook from an e-mail client, or messaging platform, to a social networking hub with the addition of social connectors. The integration of social networking is a huge benefit for Outlook users, and may even help drive adoption of Outlook as others look for a tool to help sift through the social network noise.

Integrate LinkedIn With Outlook

Calling it the "most significant" upgrade in a decade, Microsoft today revealed details for its project management application, Project 2010.

Last week's online protest against Microsoft Outlook is turning out to be a tempest-in-a-Tweet.

Microsoft Outlook is a nearly ubiquitous presence in PC computing -- and, seemingly, a universally reviled one. Outlook has countless features, ranging from e-mail gathering to calendaring, contact tracking, to-do list creation and more -- yet its tendency toward bloat, sluggishness and unreliability can make it maddening to use.