
Bill Gates demos Xobni - gaborcselle
http://www.gaborcselle.com/blog/2008/02/bill-gates-demos-xobni.html
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vlad
What's in a name? I just registered the backwards spelling of rotator, kayak,
and racecar.

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Alex3917
Reminds me of a funny video of Weird Al spoofing Bob Dylan by singing only in
palindromes:

<http://youtube.com/watch?v=Nej4xJe4Tdg>

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gibsonf1
This is great news for Xobni. Was there an actual crowd, though, at the Office
developers conference? (Just curious about the interest of developers to work
with MS products - I know I personally wouldn't want to.)

I guess the bottom line now for MS seems to be that they are "desperate" about
the future and have a large pile of money to invest - which could be a good
thing for developers and acquisition targets.

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wmorein
About 1000 according to this article:
[http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewA...](http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9062058&intsrc=news_ts_head)

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sanj
Anyone from Xobni care to comment on how this came about? Crack PR firm? VC
connection? Angel investor who is Linked-in to Mr. Gates?

I've learned that what appear to be serendipitous events usually take a HEAP
of backroom planning.

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sharpshoot
Xobni are one of the chosen startups on the Microsoft accelerator program.
Pretty simple. That & a great, usable product which is making the lives of
their users much much easier.

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sanj
I fear the former point is relevant, the latter is not.

Geez I'm getting grouchy in my old age.

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sharpshoot
Perhaps your judgement with age is the thing which has changed, you haven't
even proposed why the latter argument is invalid?

How can you argue that Outlook without Xobni is better than Outlook with
Xobni. Outlook is so bad that any minor improvement which changes the user
experience of a product which hasn't changed in 10 years is a positive one.

Obviously we aren't talking about the magnitude of the positive change which
will increase as xobni improves its product. Surely its existence is
sufficient to warrant the acceptance that its a step in the right direction.

I would conjecture you don't even use xobni, or for that matter outlook ;)

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sanj
I fear I didn't make my point clearly. I didn't mean to malign Xobni at all --
it sounds like an excellent product.

What I was attempting to point out is that the excellence of the product is
often unrelated to what gets coverage by bigwigs.

But I am also guilty of not using Outlook on any regular basis.

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alaskamiller
Foreshadowing of a buyout?

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pchristensen
I'm curious how big the "offer the Xobnis couldn't refuse" would have to be.
They're the YC company I think has the biggest commercial potential because it
looks like something businesses would pay for. Many (many) other YCs look like
M&A targets for bigger companies.

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projectileboy
Sadly, here's another possible trajectory - (1) MS "partners" with Xobni; (2)
Xobni busts a hump for two more years getting some corporate adoption; (3) MS
introduces "MS-obni", an inferior yet similar product; (4) corporate IT
departments everywhere dump third-party Xobni for MS version; (5) Xobni dies a
bitter and lonely death.

I don't mean to be a downer, but if I was a Xobni guy, this would keep me
awake at night.

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mixmax
Large corporations always try to buy you before they try to bake their own.
The risk is smaller.

I wouldn't start worrying until I said no to an offer from Microsoft.

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anewaccountname
I think you are blatantly ignoring the entire history of Microsoft.

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aston
Do you have any evidence?

Microsoft buys tons of companies, including those competing with internal
products. LookOut is a great example, and one that's relevant given the
current discussion of Outlook plugins.

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eusman
now i know why MS didn't manage to compete with Google. They still have their
focus on desktop.

Thats ok. It's better for web startups.

Bill Gates used YouTube too before Google buy it, but MS went with creating
their own video site..

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plusbryan
I just love watching him smile whenever he says Xobni! Woohoo!

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pius
Wow, congrats guys!

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vlad
Coolest news ever.

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kirubakaran
Great news!

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sabat
Here's a way Microsoft could begin to redeem itself and be a genuine force for
good in the world: start a whole division dedicated to finding truly
innovative startups with useful products and _buy them_. Then have another
division that nurtures them.

That would be cool. God knows MS has the cash to do this, and it would inspire
(more than ever) people toward innovation.

