I often write about ever increasing e-mail (Guess What … SPAM is on the increase) and I would be happy about it if it were not for the case that more than 90% of it is SPAM which is a time consuming chore even with the best SPAM software in use especially When spam should not be spam.

For the 10% that is left it feels to me that no matter how good e-mail software gets, managing e-mail, contacts and discussions are always likely to be problematic and time consuming. When an incoming e-mail arrives I need to trace the related history of the discussion to catch up and often have to find related contacts to refer to. I have previously used Plaxo for managing my address book but this really relies on everyone else also using the same service to be really effective (although the product has moved on quite a bit since I last used it). Live Search helps a little but a new product Xobni works within Outlook (as a sidebar) and as they say:

When a new email arrives, the sender’s full communication history appears in the Xobni sidebar, including past conversations, attachments and contact details. Xobni also includes a blazing fast email search tool.

A common question that is asked is how is the product different to the inbuilt search function within Outlook. The team at Xobni have this to say

Xobni’s search is lightning fast, incremental, and people based. Xobni search starts finding items as soon as you type. It simultaneously searches all your data for people, emails, as well as email to and from the person you have selected.

I first heard about Xobni on the TechCrunch website in the article Xobni Walks Away From A Microsoft Deal whilst was following progress on the Microsoft/Yahoo deal. Xobni is a relatively new (2006) technology start-up that is working on making our lives a little easier.

Xobni is currently on invite-only beta but you can learn more about Xobni on their website at Xobni.

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