Uncovering a Secret Social Network

My life at work has me living on Microsoft Outlook. Me and 350 million other people. There are plenty of productivity enhancements that you can download to optimize your Outlook experience. None have excited me like Xobni, software that generates profiles for every person you have had e-mail correspondence with.According to Xobni’s folks, you can “expose the hidden social network” living in your inbox. Along for the ride are other impressive features such as quickie e-mail search functionality (milliseconds!), e-mail analytics and automatic phone number discover.

The Xobni sidebar is where you will see the profiles the software has created. After mining your inbox, the sidebar will display contact information, related people, threaded conversations and shared attachments. This is a great way to get someone’s phone number without scrolling through e-mails.

The analytics function is cool to uncover your e-mail habits (though I’m not sure I want my employer seeing what I’m up to). Xobni uncovers the time of day you are likely to receive e-mails from a specific person.   It will also tell you the number of incoming messages vs. outgoing messages from a contact. You also find out who you e-mail with the most (Hi sis!).

Xobni will also uncover people you haven’t communicated with it quite some time. In many cases you might be avoiding these people on purpose, but in some cases, you just need a kick in the butt to be reminded to reach out.

Could other mail platforms be on the way? I’d bet on it.

An invite-only beta might keep you out of Xobni for now, but we do suggest you sign up for an invite.

Oh, and if you haven’t figured out what Xobni means… you better look at it backwards!

Discovered on Read Write Web.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.