Xobni for Outlook 1.9.5 Released – First Xobni Gadgets Available

by Josh Jacobson

Earlier this year, Xobni announced that we would be porting the OpenSocial-powered Gmail Contextual Gadgets into Xobni for Outlook, and made a preview version available to developers.  Today we are releasing Xobni 1.9.5, which includes a taste of Xobni Gadgets for the public to enjoy.

Scores of developers have approached us about creating workplace gadgets that increase productivity and collaboration. We’ll be working with trusted developers over time to make their gadgets available to millions of Xobni and Outlook users.

Today, the first reference gadgets that are available are Flickr, Yelp and YouTube.

How it works in Xobni 1.9.5: When an email is sent to a Xobni user that includes a Flickr photo link, YouTube video link or Yelp business listing link, a rich preview of each link will appear at the bottom of the email.  Sometimes a preview is all you need to save the seven-second trip to the browser.  Other times, the preview will simply be a quick way to click straight to the full browser page.  If an email contains multiple links (see picture below), we’ve created a tabbed experience to preserve precious screen space.  Of course, the Xobni Gadget bar at the bottom of messages easily expands and contracts as needed, and can be turned off through Xobni Options.

Over time, new message and sidebar gadgets will become available to users through the Xobni Gadget Manager, which is accessible through the Xobni options.

In addition to Flickr, YouTube, and Yelp, Xobni for Outlook 1.9.5 includes the following changes since 1.9.4:

• Sidebar integration with Huddle (full post here)
• Faster search speed
• Better performance in slow or unreliable network situations
• Ability to disable “search as you type” (in options)
• Tons of speed and stability improvements
• Bug fixes in many areas including AutoSuggest, conversation threading, and memory usage

Developers interested in making their products/services available in Outlook can go to http://www.xobni.com/developer to learn more.

Note: After you download, you will be prompted to close Outlook and the new Xobni version will be installed. All of your data (Xobni profile merges, contact information entries) will be maintained, no matter what version you are using currently.

If you have already purchased Xobni Plus, this download will simply update your software. You will not need to sign in again and no extra fee is required.

Update: Version 1.9.5 was first released October 12th with a build# of 12548, but was updated on Oct 19th with build #12601, which addresses an issue fetching Facebook photos.

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Google Gadgets in Microsoft Outlook? Yes, thanks to Xobni

Posted by Jeff Bonforte, CEO

Today, Google announced a brand new developer platform for Gmail called Gmail contextual gadgets. This powerful platform essentially allows developers to build web gadgets that display alongside email messages. If you are a Gmail user, you may have seen these gadgets in the form of YouTube videos, Yelp listings, Flickr previews, or Picasa previews directly below a message that contained links to those services. We can’t wait to build a full-featured Xobni gadget for Gmail, but we’ll save that for later; I’m here to talk about something very big that Xobni is giving developers today…

Bringing Gmail contextual gadgets to Microsoft Outlook

We know better than most the challenges of developing in Outlook. Since our early days, partners and customers have approached us with ideas and hopes for developing in Xobni (hence, Outlook), but didn’t have the resources to build and support a standard Outlook add-in. To address this, a Xobni extension platform has been on the drawing board for a long time. But when we saw the simplicity and power of Google’s new contextual gadget platform, we knew we had to bring it to Outlook immediately. Gmail’s new contextual gadgets platform provides a great alternative for developers looking to reach Outlook’s 600 million users, particularly for developers with more web development skills than desktop software experience.

Today we are releasing a Xobni for Outlook Developer Preview that will allow any developer to test their Gmail contextual gadget in Outlook 2003, 2007, and 2010 (32-bit and 64-bit).

Initially, only developers will have access to use and test Xobni’s new platform. Once deployed to users, these new gadgets will appear in Outlook via a horizontal bar at the bottom of messages, which easily expands or contracts, as needed. This is in concert with the current Xobni sidebar in Outlook, that offers lightning-fast search for information and contacts in email. Over the next few weeks, we will work closely with developers to finalize the details for distribution, monetization and placement of these gadgets.

So what’s the next step?

If you’re a developer, check out the docs on Google Code, then hop on over to http://www.xobni.com/developer, and dig right in.