Left 4 Dead Online Friends Appearing in Sequel, Linking Confirmed?

HellDescent writes: "While playing the Left 4 Dead 2 demo, we noticed that our friends who were playing the original Left 4 Dead were showing up in in the main menu. Now why would players from the original Left 4 Dead have their online status displayed in Left 4 Dead 2? The only thing that comes to mind is the rumor/experimenting with linking the games that was on the web not too long ago. Valve aimed to bring both sides of Left 4 Dead fans together and stated they were attempting to link the 2 games. This little message under "Online Friends" in the main menu of Left 4 Dead 2 gives much the rumor a big tank sized injection of reality. Hopefully this means we wont have to leave Bill, Zoey, Francis and Louise behind. Only Valve and their super big vault of secrets now that answer. For now, we will have to wait a few more weeks to full release."