Dear readers,

I know that a lot of you out there use a program to manage all your events and contacts. PC or web-based software such as MS Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple iCal, Entourage, Lotus Notes or Thunderbird Lightning can greatly simplify managing all your events. Many of these programs can be synced with several computers and mobile devices, meaning you’ll never miss an appointment, wherever you are.

Wouldn’t it be great if your XING Events were also integrated into this framework, if you could access them when you’re not online or on XING, or print out a daily schedule? That’s precisely why we offer an export function for XING Events. I’ll show you how to do it using MS Outlook 2007, but the principle is the same for almost all programs. (more…)

Having just launched a new version of our iPhone app very recently, I’m excited that we’re unveiling our app for the latest BlackBerry smartphones today. This latest launch of ours is in response to frequent requests from throughout the XING community.

It’s free-of-charge and enables smartphone users (many of whom are business professionals) to access their personal with much more ease when on the road. Besides access to all contact data and “News from your network”, the application lets you read and respond to all your XING messages as well.

One highlight that I am particularly proud of is its capability to synchronize individual contact data from your personal network on XING with your own address contacts on your BlackBerry.

Free download for BlackBerry smartphones at www.xing.com

In addition to English, the XING app supports German, Spanish, Turkish and Italian. The app can be downloaded for free directly to the user’s BlackBerry smartphone by simply by visiting the XING mobile website. Simply type in www.xing.com. The appropriate version for a specific BlackBerry smartphone model is automatically detected. The XING app requires an Internet-enabled BlackBerry smartphone running OS Version 4.2 or later with at least 64 MB internal memory and 170 KB of available memory.

Besides the new BlackBerry application, several other features are going live on our platform this week - all in response to user requests. (more…)

The success story behind Twitter is simple enough: sharing information with friends, acquaintances and more in 140 characters or less. The microblogging service grew 1,400% last year (wow!), and is becoming more and more popular in Germany, as this link (in German!) shows: Last month, the number of ‘Twitterers’ grew by 25%. Now there are nearly 80,000 users in Germany registered on the site. We at XING are no exception. Nearly 2,500 users follow the XING Twitter account, and other XING members are actively typing away. The XING group ‘I love Twitter‘ has 2,225 members, Microblogging has nearly 1,500 members, and a special Twitter Marketing group has almost topped the 1,000-member mark. (more…)

There are many parts of our platform that open up windows of opportunity to our members. The offers posted under XING Jobs are a particularly good example here. That’s why we’re working on optimizing this feature still further. Having introduced Job Alerts, enabling you to be notified by email of job vacancies that match your profile, we have now optimized the search result page navigation too: Now you can click back and forth directly through the posted job offers, as is already the case on the Jobs start page. (more…)

News in my network: See what your colleagues and friends are doing.

We launched the first version of our iPhone client at the end of 2008, designed to give you mobile access to the most essential XING features (status updates, messages, and contacts). And we were pretty overwhelmed with the response. More than 1,500 reviews in the App Store go to show just how important mobile networking is to our users. We gathered all your feedback - from our blog, from Twitter and from the store reviews - and got to work turning the best ideas and suggestions into reality. Today we’re pleased to announce the latest version of the app, which is available for download right now in the App Store. In case you were wondering, the new version is of course still completely free. (more…)

Having dealt primarily with group moderation in my last two posts, I’d now like to return to what group members are set to gain from active involvement in groups. In my first MaximiXING post on groups I already touched on a number of different aspects of group membership, some of which I’d like to tackle in more detail here. (more…)

When we launched Company Profiles, we also implemented the UserVoice feedback system. As you’re sure to have noticed, we’ve already made some of the changes you suggested, such as improved matching of individuals to Company Profiles the on-demand creation of Profiles for very small companies. This week, we’re continuing onward. (more…)

Welcome to the third and final part of our series of posts on XING groups. Having outlined the basics of group membership in part 1 and explained how to start a group of your own in part 2, I’ll take a look today at other options and features open to group moderators. (more…)

XING AG’s Chief Product Officer Jason Goldberg already announced in his blog article at the end of April that a wonderful spring full of surprises is waiting for XING members. After a series of improvements, we’ve had a speedy start to the summer as well. It was a real pleasure for us to welcome Jason to  XING´s “OpenSocial” launch in Turkey.

Jason shared his “OpenSocial” point of view by explaining his vision and experiences at the event held in the Sofa Hotel-Nişantaşı on June 2. He also explained his “Ship it!” concept, based on his firm belief that “the user knows and shows the best”, which was an inspiration for XING’s new Product Development vision. Around 75 guests attended the “OpenSocial” launch party in total. They included Jason, the press, bloggers and application developers. The event went down very well with guests and the media. You can read Jason’s CNBC interview here (wmv-file).

OpenSocial promises to bring many interesting applications to members and is also creating very important opportunities for application developers. They now have the chance to promote their products and services with an app aimed at the benefit of XING members. It presents a superb way of increasing their potential for new jobs and project work as well as for customer acquisition.

As XING Turkey, we’d like to express our thanks to Jason for his successful and inspirational presentation, which will help create new business and contact opportunities for XING members. We would also like to thank Marjinal for their invaluable assistance organizing the event.