Monthly Archive for June, 2008

Xobni – Killer Smartphone App?

June 26, 2008

This morning while using the handy but less-than-ideal Gmail application while commuting, I realized that Xobni could be tremendously useful on a smartphone. So useful, in fact, that it could be the only interface that’s really needed, not just a sidebar for an existing mobile email application.

Xobni is essentially a productivity application, one that lets you get to your data faster. This attribute is even more important on a mobile phone, where you have awkward input devices and slow user interfaces (both relative to a desktop/notebook).

Its contact-oriented user interface is also how on-the-go users use email - “I need to respond to so-and-so, or send a quick email/reminder to so-and-so”. Rarely do you compose long memos or thought pieces on your phone. Xobni Mobile would probably need a way to list these to-respond emails, so that users can “work through” this list while mobile. I can imagine support for Outlook 2007’s Flags-Task feature (items you flag are added to your tasks), or support for Gmail’s starred items.

Finally, the bar-like orientation of the tool also lends itself well to a mobile device – whether candy-bar phones from Nokia or the iPhone.

Does this mean that Xobni morphs from being an add-on for Outlook to an email client in itself? Not necessarily. As long as the phone has an email client that supports POP3 or IMAP, Xobni can index the underlying data store. The only difference would be the “to-respond” view. As Gabor Cselle outlined on GigaOM, their architecture isn’t tied to Outlook.

PS: Two posts on Xobni in a row? Two reasons: One: the firm uses Outlook, so I’m stuck using it most of the day. Two: Xobni has had a tremendous impact on me; completely changed the way I view email.

Have you used Xobni? Do you think it makes a difference? And would you use it on your smartphone?

What makes Xobni so popular?

June 23, 2008

Xobni is an Outlook plugin that has proven remarkably useful in managing managing bloated inboxes. It’s generated its fair share of buzz lately, and most users seem to love it. Apart from a clutch of very well-implemented features, what it is about Xobni that make it such a inherently popular tool?

Visibility: Xobni is a sidebar for Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007. With tens of millions of people using Outlook at work and, indeed, spending all day in it, Xobni is constantly in its users’ view. Contrast that with applications like Facebook, which live in a tab in your browser and will be out of view most of the time. (Serendipitiously, widescreen monitors are more popular than ever before, so a sidebar works well).

Ready-to-go: Unlike Facebook, xobni doesn’t need a first-time user to enter profile information, build a network over time by inviting friends, or accumulating wall posts or scraps. Xobni uses as fodder the tons and tons of information that’s already accumulated over the years in your inbox. That means once it’s done indexing, Xobni gets you up and running right away – discovering your network instead of you building it.

Intent-based: Xobni understands how you ‘do’ email. Users don’t view email as a chronological list of tasks at all – they either want to look at email as boxes of tasks (or projects or events), or as a collection of people whom they talk with. Xobni does the latter, and very well. So it’s a cinch looking up attachments from a contact, or the time of day you typically communicate with someone, or schedule time with someone.

Cool: Xobni’s done a terrific job of being viewed as something cool to transform drab old Outlook into. That’s why so many early adopters have turned passionate evangelists.

Do you use Outlook at work? Have you given Xobni a spin? What else (apart from specific features) do you think makes Xobni popular?