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FaceBook allows users to invite friends directly from few large email providers (hotmail.com, yahoo.com, gmail.com, aol.com, msn.com, hotmail.co.uk, yahoo.co.uk, yahoo.ca, live.com). All you need to do is just enter your email and password into the invite window and it will grab your contact list from your email in the background. However we got ourselves into a small problem while wondering how to invite our vast contacts from Windows Live Messenger (MSN) into FaceBook.

Underlying Problem
The underlying problem that contributes to this problem is that while it is easy to import contacts from your hotmail.com, live.com emails, some users do not associate their Microsoft runned emails with Windows Live Messenger network. We are one of the ones which use custom emails for our Windows Live Messenger. Therefore, it is not possible to let the miracle of importing contacts from Windows Live Messenger if you use custom emails other than the ones stated.

Another problem is that while FaceBook allows you to invite contact list saved in 4 formats [Comma-separated values (.csv), vCards (.vcf), Tab-delimited text (.txt), LDAP Data Interchange Format (.ldif)], Windows Live Messenger by default allows you to export your contact list to a .ctt file (which is actually an XML file). Therefore, you cannot import .ctt file into FaceBook.

The Workaround
We took our problems to the internet and found a way to import Windows Live Messenger contacts into FaceBook. This requires you to get a Windows Live Messenger Contact List converter to convert your contacts to a Comma-seperated values (.csv) file which will be accepted by FaceBook.

1) Get yourself the program, MSN2CSV Converter. (You might require a msvbvm50.dll file should you fail to run the program)

2) Save your Windows Live Messenger contacts by going to “Contacts -> Save instant messenger contacts…” option in your Windows Live Messenger.

3) Fire up MSN2CSV Converter

4) For our basic conversion, click Quick Conversion

5) From here, select the (.ctt) file that you saved and output directory of the .csv file.

6) Click convert and you will be presented with your Windows Live Messenger contacts in Comma-seperated values fomat.

7) Import the file into FaceBook and Voila, you shall see all your Windows Live Messenger Contacts in your FaceBook invitation window.

See Also:

• Meebo Rooms Lets Users Interact In FaceBook Applications
• Search FaceBook Applications From Search Engines
• FaceBook Gains Another $60 Million