Filed under: Internet, Windows, E-mail, Beta
Xobni launches public beta of Outlook email add-on
by Brad Linder May 5th 2008 at 10:00AM
Xobni is one of those services that you kind of have to see to understand its value, which is why we've included the promotional video above. But in a nutshell, it's a Microsoft Outlook add-on that gives you detailed information about the people you email most often and help you organize your communications.
The program adds a sidebar to Outlook and creates a profile for people you communicate with by pulling information from your email messages even if you haven't created a contact profile in Outlook. Here are a few of the things Xobni can show you:
- The phone numbers of people you email are automatically extracted from messages
- You can see a graph of the times of day when a contact typically emails you, so you will know if they're less likely to respond to a message after business hours
- Xobni automatically displays all attachments a contact has sent you
- See statistics about your contacts, easily find the people you email the most often, and identify contacts you've lost touch with
Xobni has been available as a private beta for a few months now, but this morning the company took down the private sign and opened the beta up to everyone who wants to download and install the utility. Well, everyone who uses Windows and Outlook anyway.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jack said 12:03PM on 5-05-2008
I wonder if there's any equivalent for Thunderbird?
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cgrucelski said 2:55PM on 5-05-2008
There is not currently any version other than the one for Outlook, although I cannot wait until there is!
I have been using Xobni for Outlook 2007 (have to at work) for the last month or two and this thing just ROCKS! I don't know what email clients don't have this kind of functionality right out of the box, but kudos to the development team at Xobni!
Check it out if you haven't already.
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cgrucelski said 3:03PM on 5-05-2008
Sorry, I just saw a typo in my own post!
What I meant to say was: "...I don't know WHY email clients don't have this kind of functionality..."
recrudesce said 12:52PM on 5-06-2008
just installed this, and it's awesome. it's made me so much more productive in just 1 day.
no more searching for elusive emails with a specific attachment on it. no more trying to find that email to get a CC'd email address...
just... wow !
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rpeacock said 4:31PM on 5-06-2008
I recieved a beta invite for Xobni and, a little hesitantly, decided to give it a try. This add-on is fantastic! It helps me keep me e-mail more organized, as well as allows me to cross-reference contacts and attachments. The features packed into this add so much functionality, it's hard to pick my favorite. The added bonus of having a phone number displayed allows me to contact the emailer for futher clairification if needed without having to open my address book. Thanks Xobni!
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biahus said 4:00PM on 5-06-2008
Great software if you find the following excerpt from their privacy policy agreeable
1. Information You Provide to Us:
We receive and store any information you enter on our website, software, or provide to us in any other way. You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but that may limit your experience.
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sean Ellis said 10:07PM on 5-14-2008
As part of the Xobni team - thanks everybody for the great comments. We've been working hard, but believe there is a lot more we can do to improve the Xobni experience. I wanted to respond specifically to biahus' comment. I definitely understand your concern on the privacy policy as it is currently written. This was boiler plate policy from the very early days of the company that is used by many web companies. We're working on a new privacy policy written specifically for Xobni. I'm sure you will find much more acceptable. We will post the updated policy soon.