Xobni, the contacts- and email-management company, is using the Gmail API we reported on earlier today, to create a developer platform for killing two birds with one stone. Using Xobni, developers will be able to make contextual gadgets for Gmail and easily port them over to Outlook.
In a blog post, the company’s CEO, Jeff Bonforte, announced a Xobni for Outlook Developer Preview “that will allow any developer to test their Gmail contextual gadget in Outlook 2003, 2007, and 2010 (32-bit and 64-bit).”
Saying “develop once, deploy twice,” Xobni claims ease-of-development for its platform, in both Outlook, its forte, and Gmail’s contextual API.
“Developers can now begin building applications that run inside of Outlook without having to build an entire Outlook plugin. (It) initially enables developers to build Contextual Gadgets that appear when the current email matches certain criteria. For example, a flight check-in application could run when a user is viewing an email containing a travel itinerary.”
Extending a developer’s reach from one email platform to the other certainly is a powerful pitch. The claim should attract plenty of developer attention.
