Today, Microsoft Netherlands released Invite2Messenger which allows new Windows Live Messenger users to send out invitations to their contacts from Hotmail, Outlook, Outlook Express, Yahoo! Mail and Gmail. Existing Messenger users can also use the website if they have a lot of contacts which aren’t yet added to their buddy list.
The site with a couple of simple steps:
- First you can choose which type of contacts to load into the system. Hotmail contacts are loaded via the Contacts API, while you have to upload a CSV file to load Outlook, Yahoo! mail and Gmail contacts.
- Next, you can select the contacts you want to invite. Contacts which have been invited previously will be marked by a green check mark.
- Finally, you can preview the invitation e-mail before sending it out to the new contacts you want to invite.
Hotmail currently contain a similar concept, however Hotmail allows you to import contacts to your Hotmail address book, while this system allows you to invite people to add you to Messenger. While Invite2Messenger is currently targeted at the Dutch market, we might see it emerge in other markets as well.
