Outlook plug-in Xobni gets deeper social hooks
The popular Outlook extension Xobni (download) is getting hooks into additional data sources. The service, which to date has given users historial detail about the people they communicate with in e-mail, is now extending its lookup to more social networks and other data sources.
Now, when a user is viewing a person's record, in addition to showing the user the Outlook history, it will also look up communications with that person on Yahoo Mail, and let you connect with them on Skype.
More interesting, I think, is its expanding hooks into social networks: In addition to its previous LinkedIn support, it will now troll through Facebook and return information about a highlighted user, such as their recent status message and picture.
The product can also look up the company the contact is affiliated with on Hoovers, and display that info in your sidebar.
Although Xobni now grabs data from more sources, it is still only a tool for users of Outlook. I've heard that support for Web e-mail (Google and Yahoo) is coming.
Read previous Xobni coverage.
Xobni will now look up data on your contacts' employers.
It will also give you their e-mail history from Yahoo Mail as well as Outlook.
Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe. 
