San Francisco-based email startup Xobni (inbox
spelled backwards) has launched its public beta phase of its software
product which aims to organize Microsoft Outlook. The computer program
analyzes all e-mails and associates the ones that it thinks are
related. Xobni also parses the messages for various contact information
such as phone numbers and addresses.
Xobni's information is
mostly displayed in a special sidebar. The software also produces
various statistical numbers such as how often you communicate with a
person and when. The program has the following main features:
* faster email search
* threaded conversations
* people-oriented navigation
* calculation of your contacts' email habits
* extraction of phone numbers from address book and prior email conversations
* fast attachment discovery
* one-click scheduling
* complex email analytics
The
interesting company was founded in 2006 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and
relocated the same year to San Francisco. At the core of the company's
technology stands its first employee, Gabor Cselle, a Software Engineer
from Google. He is currently VP of Engineering.
Also, in
February this year, Xobni hired Jeff Bonforte, a Vice President at
Yahoo, as their CEO. The aggressive move was followed by a surprising
demo by Bill Gates of the company's product at the Office Developer's
Conference. The Gates gig has immediately sparked rumors of an imminent
Microsoft acquisition, which proved false.
"Xobni analyzes
mountains of data and shows you what matters -- your relationships,
your communication habits, context around messages -- information
trapped in email that's often lost or forgotten," said Matt Brezina,
co-founder of Xobni in a statement.