Xobni is a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook that, in the first couple of days that I’ve used it, has changed the way I use my inbox. I send and receive a lot of email. A lot of email. Xobni’s toolbar appears on the right hand side of inbox and helps to manage all the email communications, file attachments, and contact info from each person who sends me email.
Xobni first debuted in September 2007, and was described in January 2008 as The Super Plugin For Outlook by TechCrunch’s Nick Gonzalez. Shortly thereafter, in February, ex-Yahoo Vice President Jeff Bonforte became CEO. The icing on the cake came when Bill Gates, speaking at the Microsoft Office Developer Conference in San Jose, Calif., called Xobni “the next generation of social networking.”
The accolades are worth it. As you move through your inbox, the Xobni toolbar quickly updates itself to show the details of the currently selected contact. There’s a video below that describes the main features, so I won’t explain them all in depth here. But one of the key features that the video leaves out is the “Schedule Time” feature. Simply select an email sent to you by someone you want to schedule time with. Click the “Schedule Time” link, and an email reply is automatically generated that describes your availability in plain English, for those who don’t have access to your Outlook Calendar. Here’s an example:
Dear Bob,
Here is my availability for the next few days. (All times are Eastern Daylight Time, GMT-04:00.)
Tue April 15, 10 to 12pm, 1 to 4pm
Wed April 16, 9 to 12pm, 1 to 4pm
Thu April 17, 9 to 10:30am, 1:30 to 3pm, 5 to 6pm
Fri April 18, 9 to 11am, 1 to 2pm, 3 to 4pm, 5 to 6pmBest,
Matthew
That single feature along is worth its weight in gold. Not convinced? Here’s a nice in-depth intro video to this great, free (for now) service.
Surely, it won’t be long before Microsoft gobbles this company up. If the immediate, dramatic improvement to their product wasn’t enough, Xobni plans on introducing their service to other email platforms in 2008. Acquiring Xobni and rolling it into the Outlook product would be a great way to further differentiate from other email platforms.
Don’t have Outlook? Sorry, Xobni can’t help you right now. But if you use Gmail, try a similar service, Xoopit, instead!
Update: It’s confirmed that Microsoft has signed a Letter of Intent to acquire Xobni for $20 million.
Update: Xobni Walks Away from the Microsoft Deal, citing concerns over the future of the Xobni team once it was integrated into the Microsoft organization. Additionally they feel like the future is to bring Xobni-technology to Yahoo, Gmail, and other top email platforms. It’s been well reported that Xobni is $5 million in. To me, it sounds like they blew a huge opportunity to make 4x in about 2 years. Time will tell . . .
