Xobni, the startup that brings the social network to your inbox, has just announced the launch of their public beta, which begins today. We covered Xobni back in January, calling the software "ingenious" because of its ability to tap into the biggest, yet often hidden, social network that everyone utilizes - email.]]>
The software currently only works with Outlook where it runs in a sidebar, analyzing and extracting info about you, your relationships, and your communication habits.
Xobni initially launched in September 2007 at the TechCrunch40 Conference. After being downloaded thousands of times in the hours after launch, they closed the doors and went into a private beta period. During this time, they kept the number of beta testers low while focusing on refining Xobni's features and responding to user feedback. Some of these adjustments were documented on the company's blog, like the removal of the "organize" tab from Xobni's UI, which was decided to be too much of a distraction to the core product.
Back in January, we noted that their blog had hinted at expanding beyond Outlook to other platforms, but, besides a clever April Fool's Day prank where they announced support for Pine email, no additional news regarding future supported platforms has been announced. While this leaves many email users in the cold, for those who work in the corporate world - where Outlook is still heavily used - Xobni's public beta will be of great help, allowing them to quickly find and expose the data trapped in their inbox.
To gain access to the public beta, just visit the Xobni homepage. You can also learn more about Xobni via the video below:
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