Although I am really supposed to be working (Pete, I’ll get that resident demographic piece done tomorrow…I just needed a break), I found some fun stuff online. So, since there is no one here to talk to about it (kids are asleep, au pair’s on a date, etc.) I am going to share it with you.
If you are like me, you use Microsoft Outlook for your email. And you know the more you use it, the slower it seems to run, right? Well, here’s your answer: www.xobni.com . Here’s the scoop on it:
Xobni, based in San Francisco, is introducing a new tool on Monday that plugs into Outlook. Adam Smith’s (xobni’s founder) general complaint — one that is shared by many users of Outlook — is that the more the program is used, the slower it gets and the harder it is to search for e-mail addresses and phone numbers.
To solve these problems, Xobni (“inbox” spelled backwards and pronounced zob-nee) has produced free downloadable software that, once installed, indexes all the e-mail in Outlook and makes those messages quickly and easily searchable. The software, available at www.xobni.com, will also be sold to companies.
Other programs, like Google Desktop, perform that same basic index-and-search function. But Xobni, which its creators call an “intelligent filter,” adds a few more features. When it scours the inbox, it extracts phone numbers it thinks are associated with the sender. So when a user searches for a person, Xobni presents the number in a side panel to Outlook.
The software also interprets the social relationships between people who are sending messages to each other. For example Xobni recognizes that if an executive sends a copy to someone else on each message he or she sends, it might be to an assistant or another colleague. When someone using Xobni searches for that executive in Outlook, the second person is listed as well.
Just remember: I am only notifying you of this; I am NOT ENDORSING it. It’s in beta, so risks in downloading apply. It looks interesting, though.
The other cool thing is something I totally forgot I ever knew about: Teleflip. It’s a website that lets you send email as a text message. Now, I like that, as I need to regularly communicate with Gen Y’ers who’d much rather text than talk. And I am LOUSY at texting. You see, I was an English major in college so it just goes against my grain to type something like “C U L8R” . (I’m shuddering just thinking about it.) So check it out at www.teleflip.com