Xobni

Xobni, a name derived from spelling "inbox" backward, was a software company focused on enhancing email and contact management. The firm was established in March 2006 by Adam Smith and Matt Brezina, who started the venture from a dorm room in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as part of the Y Combinator summer program. The company later moved its headquarters to San Francisco to be closer to Silicon Valley.

The core of Xobni's business was to create applications that automatically discover and compile comprehensive profiles for every contact a user has interacted with via email, calls, or SMS. Its initial product, launched in 2007, was a plugin for Microsoft Outlook designed to improve search and provide people-centric navigation of email archives. This tool indexed Outlook data, presenting emails as threaded conversations, organizing file attachments, and extracting useful information like phone numbers. The service automatically created rich profiles for each contact, including their photo, job title, company details, communication history, and social media updates from platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. The business model operated on a freemium basis; a basic version was free, while a paid version, Xobni Plus, offered advanced features like searching multiple email archives and no advertisements. Revenue was also generated through enterprise sales and a platform for third-party developers.

Over time, Xobni expanded its product line, introducing the Smartr brand for its Gmail, Android, and iPhone applications, as well as versions for BlackBerry. Its Android app was particularly well-received, being named "Best Address Book for the Android" by Lifehacker. The company attracted significant investment from firms such as Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, and Atomico. In February 2008, after a demo by Bill Gates at an Office Developers' Conference, Microsoft reportedly entered into acquisition talks, but a deal was never finalized. Ultimately, in July 2013, Yahoo acquired Xobni for a sum reported to be over $60 million. The intention was to integrate Xobni's technology into various Yahoo products, particularly Yahoo Mail. However, just one year after the acquisition, in July 2014, Yahoo shut down Xobni's services as part of a broader strategy to refocus on its core experiences.

Keywords: contact management, email plugin, address book, Outlook add-in, Smartr, social profile aggregation, email search, contact discovery, relationship management, Yahoo acquisition, Y Combinator, Matt Brezina, Adam Smith, email analytics, mobile contacts, Gmail extension, BlackBerry app, contact intelligence, communication history, enterprise software