Xobni's Secret Project: Merge Outlook With Yahoo Mail
But not only does Xobni work in Yahoo Mail, it also integrates with Outlook. So in that Xobni pane under “conversations”, you can also see any previous emails that you had with that contact in Outlook (assuming you have the Xobni plug-in for Outlook installed). Similarly, conversations with that contact that happened on Yahoo are visible in the Xobni sidebar inside Outlook as well (second screen shot below). Xobni constantly syncs Yahoo Mail and Outlook contacts, and you can see both of them in one view on the Web (third screen shot below). And, this is the nice part, you can search both Yahoo and Outlook e-mails using the Xobni search box, even from within the browser.
No word on when this might actually launch, but it makes sense for Xobni to move beyond Outlook. The fact that it is looking to Yahoo first is also no surprise, since new CEO Jeff Bonforte (personal friend alert) used to head up the IM group at Yahoo under Brad Garlinghouse. And, should anyone from Microsoft stop by the Xobni offices, well, that’s the kind of demo that gets deals done. Outlook-Yahoo Mail integration would no doubt be high on any post-merger check-list. And it looks like Xobni already has a headstart on it.
Xobni is still in private beta. If you want to try it (for Outlook only), the first 200 people to register here with the code “techcrunch200” will get in.