LinkedIn and Microsoft announced today that Windows Live Messenger users can now link their Windows Live profile to LinkedIn. There are four main areas Microsoft says its focused on with its LinkedIn integration. These are:

– Keeping your contact list organized with auto contact linking across Hotmail, Messenger and the rest of Windows Live

– Helping you use Messenger to keep up with what your LinkedIn contacts are doing.

– Making it simple to share updates from Messenger to your LinkedIn contacts.

– Helping your Messenger friends keep up with what you are doing on LinkedIn.

"We recognize how tedious it is to manually clean up duplicate contacts in your contact list, but it’s important that you have easy access to the right contact information for the right situation," says Windows Live group program manager  Jeff Kunins.  "For example, when you send a work-related email, you may use a different email address than when you send a personal note to the same person."

"When you make the LinkedIn connection with Windows Live, your LinkedIn contacts are automatically linked to the same contact you already have stored in Windows Live, so that you have one record with the combined set of information," adds Kunins. "Now you can compose and send email to your LinkedIn contacts right from Hotmail."

More on the new features here. 

Microsoft also announced some new features it’s rolling out for Windows Live Hotmail. LinkedIn announced that it’s acquiring ChoiceVendor.