XING’s March Product Offensive: More Networking Features and More Activity

After our last product offensive in September 2010 and a number of minor changes made on a weekly basis, we’re now taking a huge step forward by expanding our platform to revolutionize your business networking activity and communication. XING members are already the most active business networkers around, and now we’re giving you the tools to increase your networking activity even further.

Changes to the “What’s new in your network” feature

The changes we’re making are centered around the “What’s new in your network” feature that appears on your homepage. We introduced this “network stream” as an information box back in November 2007, and since that time it has become a kind of business network nexus for all users. Here you can see what’s going on in your network – from new contacts to event participations to group posts – and individually configure visibility settings to meet your personal needs, as is customary on XING.

From now on, both basic and Premium Members can comment on status updates, event participations, group posts, news and a wide range of other activities they or their contacts have posted. And now you can also“like” something someone has posted.

This gives you an opportunity to follow your contacts’ opinions, ideas and comments, and use joint discussions as a way of meeting and connecting with other experts right from your homepage. A new filter means that information can be presented in a list sorted by into the categories jobs, groups, events and status updates. And by ticking the box next to the Twitter icon you can post your status update or recommendation both on XING and as a tweet.

As mentioned above, XING takes the approach that users should always retain full control over their own data. So you decide who can see your posts and any subsequent discussions by either making them available to just your contacts or the entire XING network.

Activity tab in your profile

From now on, your profile has an activity tab listing all your activity on the platform. This summary of discussions and recommendations doubles up with the rest of your profile – which largely acts as a CV – to build your online reputation and is available to both basic and Premium Members.

As with the “What’s new in your network” feature, you can decide who sees what in your activity tab: The default setting is such that only your contacts can view your activity. You are of course free to edit this setting so that information from “What’s new in your network” is completely invisible or, inversely, available to everyone on XING.

Improved mobile web app and a new Android app

We’ve also launched the alpha version of our mobile web app. Just enter touch.xing.com in your mobile browser (see compatibility overview) to access the app which is just as user-friendly as the native apps. A new version of the Android app will appear in the Android Market today that includes a new and improved design, improved usability, the Mobile Handshake feature, and contacts’ birthdays.

I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved and would like to say thanks – not just to our developers and product managers who’ve been burning the midnight oil to make this all possible, but also to you and every other XING member out there. Our aim is to help you get ahead by providing you with features you want and need in your day-to-day business life. We will of course continue to improve XING’s products and services to make sure you get the most out of the platform.

I hope you enjoy the new features – happy networking!

Stefan Gross-Selbeck