Xobni – The Automatic Address Book

Most email address books are a pain, but Xobni is something completely different. The automatic address book and contact list manager offers its users a smarter way to organize their personal contacts and sync their information across multiple devices.

Xobni takes information from your email, mobile phone, and social networking accounts and uses it to create robust profiles for each person listed in your email address book. Each profile includes the necessary contact information, as well as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn updates, a complete message history, and a list of contacts you have in common. Once you’ve set up the platform with your own email system, it works automatically in the background. The next time you log in to your Gmail account, for example, you’ll see a Xobni sidebar to the right of your emails. Click on an unread email, and this sidebar will instantly populate with all the sender’s personal information. Xobni’s address book automatically updates when people change their contact information, making it easy to stay up to date whether you’re using your personal laptop, your work computer, or your mobile phone.

Groups and teams looking to increase productivity can check out Xobni, as well. The application offers a cloud-based service called Xobni Pro and a service for offices or teams. The application offers plugins that work on both Gmail and Outlook, and mobile applications that work on Androids, iPhones, and BlackBerrys.

Practical Uses:

• Get updated contact information for people who change their phone numbers frequently
• Make sure everyone on your team has your current pager number
• Add personal touches to your client emails
• Export your contacts to Outlook

Insider Tips:

• Xobni’s mobile apps work on iPhones, Androids, and BlackBerry devices
• People can use Xobni with their Gmail and Outlook accounts
• Xobni pulls personal information from LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter
• Professional users can connect with their Salesforce accounts

What we liked:

• Xobni helps people sync their email contacts across multiple devices
• People can put a name to the face when emailing clients they haven’t met
• Xobni provides users with personal information about the people they’re emailing
• Pro users can get daily spam rescue alerts letting them know if important emails are incorrectly filtered

What we didn’t like:

• Many of the best Xobni features are only available to people with Pro accounts

Alternatives:

• Plaxo – http://www.plaxo.com
• Rapportive – http://rapportive.com
• Scrubly – http://www.scrubly.com
• Soocial – http://www.soocial.com

Company Info:

• Launched: September 2007 (Private Beta)
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California
• Founded by: Adam M. Smith and Matt Brezina
• Web site: http://www.xobni.com

Costs:

• Xobni Pro is $7.99/month