Some of you more Redmond-cynical types out there might just be losing some bets here soon.

The Inquisitr thinks Microsoft "may finally be coming to the Social Media game in a big way." Maybe not in a way that the current reigning trinity -- Facebook (News - Alert), Twitter and Google might notice - but probably not as embarrassing as Google Buzz either.

Okay, we admit we still have trouble writing "Microsoft (News - Alert)" and "social media" in the same sentence, but still, as Inquisitr notes there was the announcement at The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam about Messenger Connect "which in contrast to past efforts by Microsoft is being built on the maturing standards used by an increasing number of Social Media services."

These standards are described as OAuth WRAP, ActivityStreams.ms, and Portable - "which are the wrapper around this new Messenger Connect API that in itself is the merging of all of Microsoft's previous API (Windows Live ID, Contacts API, and Messenger Web Toolkit)."

What's the big deal? As Inquisitr says, "Microsoft is coming to the Social Media game as a partner rather than a big bully dictating how things should be done," by agreeing to use the same standards as everyone else.

Ori Amiga writes on the Windows blog that "connecting into existing friend relationships is very valuable… taking advantage of the existing relationships and communications within the large online networks is more valuable than trying to create their own walled garden."

"Walled garden" - hi Facebook!

"Emerging industry standards for social data are easing development," Amiga writes, adding that "Whether it's identity and authentication or it's how contacts and updates are shared between sites, the emergence of industry standards is making it much more efficient for different developers to allow their customers to connect with each other."

Hard to argue with that, just still slightly weird to see "Because We Say It's Going To Be That Way, That's Why" Microsoft writing it.

The Windows blog says that right now Microsoft has three goals:

Instantly create a user profile and social graph, Drive engagement directly through chat indirectly through social distribution and designing for easy integration in your technical environment

It's a start.