When the sun can’t always be counted on to shine and clouds appear in the sky any time of year: It’s summertime at XING nonstop from now until August 25! And for a limited time, members who sign up for a XING Premium Membership will receive an additional Premium Month for free. Plus, there are great prizes to be won. If you sign up by August 25, you’ll be in a drawing for a MacBook, an iPod touch or one of ten one-year Premium Memberships. (more…)

In addition to the XING Partner Ecosystem, there are several other changes to improve networking on XING that went live. Now when you’re looking through Company Profiles and find one that might interest someone you know, you can recommend it to the contact. (more…)

Dear readers, dear XING members,

I’m excited to announce that now, with the launch of Travelload, yet another external application from the XING Partner Ecosystem went live.  As our Chief Product Officer Jason Goldberg already stated in his previous blog post, the Partner Ecosystem is based on OpenSocial.

In contrast to applications that have been developed for proprietary environments, OpenSocial applications are interoperable within the context of multiple networks and build on standard technologies such as HTML and JavaScript. For XING, OpenSocial presents a great opportunity to expand our existing functionalities with a host of additional third-party applications, without having to relinquish control over our members’ personal data in the process.

To use an application, you need to add it to your XING account through our Application Directory. Once you have done so, you can start interacting with this application. XING currently supports three different locations where applications are rendered. In the Opensocial standard, these locations are formally known as Views: (more…)

Editor’s note: This article by Huddle co-founder and CEO Alastair Mitchell is part of a series following the launch of the XING Partner Ecosystem where the developers of the OpenSocial apps get the opportunity to present their applications.

In the age of social networking, email is no longer an adequate collaboration tool. Enter Huddle Workspaces, your own private and secure workspaces, on XING to help you work with your connections.

We have developed Huddle Workspaces specifically for XING and the launch of its Partner Ecosystem. XING is leading the way in business networking and Huddle Workspaces will make it easier for XING members to work better together on projects or brainstorm with new ventures.

Huddle Workspaces include all the key features of Huddle, our network of secure online workspaces that is currently used by companies including P&G, Kia Motors, Pearson and Nokia. Huddle is currently available in English, German, French and Italian, with more languages to follow. (more…)

It gives us great pleasure to announce The XING Partner Ecosystem.

Starting today, XING’s members will benefit from a wide variety of partner applications on the XING platform.

The XING Partner Ecosystem is made possible via the OpenSocial framework. XING’s partners are able to create applications using OpenSocial and then easily enable those applications to integrate into the XING professional network. The Applications are tightly integrated into the core functionality of XING, and are thus able to leverage XING’s “business graph” of connections between professionals to make the applications engaging and rewarding for XING’s users. (more…)

Our main goal at XING is to give you the tools that enable you to build up your network and present yourself and your work in the best possible way. That’s why Premium Members now have the option of uploading attachments to their profiles. You can upload work samples, references, your resume or even brochures for other members to see. (more…)

Just sending a short birthday message to your contacts can make a world of difference: They foster a personal relationship and connection, and leave a good impression in the mind of the person celebrating a birthday. Our members already know this, which is why many have added the “Your contacts’ birthdays” box to the XING home page, or use the Premium Powersearch. (more…)

What page do you see first when you log on to https://www.xing.com? Exactly. Your home page. Have you simply been using the navigation bar to go directly to your groups or messages? That’s fine. But it’s even better to personalize your home page so that it displays information that is important to you.

For example, “What’s new in your network” makes sure you know when one of your contacts gets a new job, and “Visitor’s to your profile” shows you people that might be worth getting to know. If you are looking for new challenges, you should activate “Jobs that may interest you”. Groups, events, jobs, interesting XING members – the list of options is endless. Or at least almost endless. Including our OpenSocial applications, there are currently 16 boxes that you can display on your home page. (more…)

We’re proud to announce yet another nifty XING gadget. iGoogle users can now use shortcuts to get to the best-loved and most used XING features.

This is the new XING gadget on iGoogle..

We’ve already received masses of positive feedback in response to the XING App on Allyve.com and the XING Desktop Gadget for Windows Vista. iGoogle allows you to create your personalized Google page. The new XING Gadget lets you see what’s going on in your network at any given time – right from your iGoogle start page.

The XING Gadget keeps you up-to-the-minute, showing you at a glance who last visited your profile, how many new contact requests you have and how many unread messages are waiting for you. An integrated XING search means you can search directly for people or companies on XING from the comfort of your customized start page.

The gadget is currently available in German, English, Spanish, Turkish and Italian. The default language for all other users is English. As always, data protection is our top priority. We’ve applied the very latest Oauth Standards with this feature, meaning your personal data remains secure.

Install the XING Gadget for iGoogle now.

Have fun!

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…)