One of my least favourite work-related necessities takes the shape of Outlook meeting invites. They are sheer GENIUS when sent correctly to the right people for the right time – but a wrong move can result in a sheer cascade of ‘newly proposed time’ responses and multiple update emails with a mind of their own.
The invites bit in itself is a nightmare task at times, as well as the fact that archiving and tracking the emails themselves is less than reliable. I was chatting to a client this week, and we realised that every time we catch up, we spend at least half of the time searching for old emails to refer back to.
After much hilarity surrounding my insanely detailed filing system, and that it still takes an age to search for specific documents, she sent me an invite to try a service called Xobni. The Xobni plug-in (yes, it’s Inbox backwards) is a free download that opens a separate toolbar on the right-hand side of your Outlook screen. It automatically tracks contacts and organises emails into fully searchable threaded conversations.
My email inbox is absolutely vital to me, it contains almost any information I could need and I rely on it accordingly. I keep a reasonably tight system going (as above), but searching is often a nightmare. Xobni was created to ‘organise, search and navigate’ Outlook, and that’s why it appeals to me.
I’d heard of the tool before, as Xobni was a Techcrunch40 player, as well as the fact that Adam Smith (who developed the app) was named one of MIT Tech Review’s 35 Young Innovators Under 35 this year. Previous winners include Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Kevin Rose (Digg), and at just 23, Smith has secured a place on the list next to Jack Dorsey (Twitter).
The Xobni concept speaks directly to me, as I’m the kind of girl that uses my inbox for its content. It’s more about the social/personal aspect of email, than just times and dates.
Xobni starts by indexing your stored emails, and then the fun really begins. The intelligent search returns both a ‘people’ and an ‘email’ list in far less time than the standard Outlook engine, and also highlights search terms for ease of use. This is just a drop in the ocean though, as under the search box appears a mini profile of each sender – including a chart of how many emails they’ve sent to you, the times/dates and when that person is most active on email. It’s a fantastic way to gauge when the best time of day is to catch someone online.
There’s also then a photo, phone number (which is automatically taken from a saved contact, or directly from an email sign off). If the person profiled has a LinkedIn account, Xobni will draw details directly from there and display his or her job title, as well as employer and other details.
There’s a network section, which creates groups based on the recipients placed in the ‘to’ or ‘cc’ fields of various emails you’ve exchanged. ‘Conversations’ displays the entire threads of all the email exchanges you’ve had with each profiled person. And, fabulously, there’s a section listing all the files you have exchanged as attachments with your contacts.
Xobni can do all of the standard Outlook invite actions as well, but in a far slicker manner. You can generate a meeting invite for any person with a profile, and send them a selection of times that you’re free throughout the next few days or weeks, taken directly from your Outlook calendar.
The Xobni team is working on versions for other email readers, such as Yahoo Mail, but as I’m almost 100% Outlook-centric, this is serious life-changing stuff.