Xobni brings a Twitterstream to Outlook

Xobni streams contacts' tweets.

(Credit: Xobni)

Microsoft Outlook search extension Xobni (Windows) gets a new extension of its own this week: Twitter.

Best known for speedily hunting down e-mail contacts and conversations in Microsoft Outlook, Xobni also has a social networking aspect. It includes photos courtesy of Facebook, phone numbers via Skype, Yahoo Mail, LinkedIn profile information, corporate information from Hoover's, and now, a Twitter stream.

Click on the Twitter icon in the contact view to see a list of recent tweets. Icons below get you started on a reply, retweet, or new post. You can also follow, unfollow, and view the person's profile. Note that tweets may not be available for every Xobni contact. If they're not public and you're not an approved follower, you won't see much in the updates stream.

Associating a Twitter account with a contact isn't automatic. For each contact whose account you want to see, Xobni will trigger a search for matches. It will remember associations once you've approved them, making this a one-time process. You can also manually link a name to the contact you're viewing. We wish the Twitter extension were as smoothly integrated as the Facebook extension, which takes no legwork at all.

But if you do take the time to set up Twitter for some contacts, you'll be rewarded with a more intimate portrait of people in your casual and business circles. Instead of just a name, you might also see a face, a Skype number, and, with Twitter, a sense of your contact's personality and interests. Even if you're not attempting to humanize people you've never met in real life, Xobni's Twitter integration can also be a convenience tool that lets you post a tweet without having to close or hide Outlook.

While Twitter in Xobni covers the major bases, it won't replace dedicated desktop apps for heavy-duty tweeters. For that, see our roundup of five desktop Twitter helpers.

The latest update--Xobni 1.8.3 build 8559--also includes back-end adjustments to improve search speed, Windows 7 compatibility, and a handful of other tweaks and big fixes.

[HughJJorgan]

Unfortunately in version 1.8 Xobni also removed the ability to index multiple Outlook archive (PST) files from their free version, rendering it completely useless for people with a large amount of archived mail. Much as I would love to have the twitter feed, the search must be functional also for me to reinstall it.

[stuporglue]

You could always...oh, I don't know, buy it.

If you've got so much important e-mail, to store, $30 isn't a bad investment.

[Josh_Jacobson]

If you have been using Xobni on your computer since before this summer, then simply installing the new version on top of your current version will actually not restrict any of your PST files. We did this for users like you who have been with Xobni since the early days. So please give it a try and let us know what you think!

[xxdesmusxx]

how does it work with Outlook 2010?

[Josh_Jacobson]

Xobni does not yet render perfectly in Outlook 2010 (though everything else does seem to function quite well). We are working with the Tech Preview now and will be fully ready when it hits general availability if not before. We may announce an alpha program on our blog http://www.xobni.com/blog in the future. Thanks for the question!

[pbathavale]

i have downloaded techtracker 3 times.
it does not INSTALL !!
SO I CANNOT SCAN MY COMPUTER AS WELL !!
.....PL. HELP !!
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