The Smart Facebook

Microsoft is apparently not part of the world Facebook wants to connect, as an update to the social network’s Graph API removed the ability for several Microsoft applications and services to support Facebook Connect.

In a Microsoft Office support blog post, Microsoft explained how the changes to Facebook’s Graph API affect the following products:

• Outlook.com contacts
• Calendar sync on Outlook.com, Windows, Windows Phone and Office 365
• The Windows 8.1 People and Windows 8 People apps
• The calendar apps for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1
• Windows 8 Photo Gallery and Movie Maker
• Windows 8 Photos
• People, OneDrive and Photos for Windows Phone 7 and 8
• Windows Live Essentials calendar and contacts
• OneDrive Online
• Outlook Social Connector in Outlook 2013
• The Office Outlook 365 Web app

Full details are available in the blog post, but the major features to be impacted include:

• If you’ve previously connected your Facebook account to Outlook.com, your Facebook contacts will no longer be updated with information from Facebook.
• Facebook events will no longer automatically sync to your calendar on Outlook.com, Windows, Windows Phone and Office 365. As a workaround, you can subscribe to a link that Facebook provides from Outlook.com calendar.
• If you’ve connected the People app to Facebook on Windows 8.1, you’ll no longer be able to see any updates from your Facebook contacts in the app from now on. If you’re a new user, you won’t be able to add your Facebook account to the People app because the Connect feature is no longer supported.
• People app tile notifications shown on the desktop will no longer include updates from Facebook.
• Sharing content to Facebook contacts using the People app will no longer be supported.
• Posting updates to Facebook contacts via the People app will no longer be supported.
• You will no longer be able to publish photos or videos directly to Facebook. But photos and videos that have been previously published to Facebook via Photo Gallery will remain published.

Readers: What are your thoughts on this move by Facebook?