Xobni vs. Gist- Desktop Access

When it comes to dealing with your contacts, most people want their contacts someplace where they have immediate access to it.  We want it locally because we don't trust anyone else and we want to be able to back it up in case it crashes.

Xobni is only available for Outlook and the only way to access your content is through the Outlook plug-in.  It is the only front-end interface they offer to access your own data on your desktop. 

• It does not work with Mozilla Thunderbird.
• It does not work with Windows Live Desktop Mail.
• It does not work with Mac Mail.
• It does not work if you are only using Gmail/Hotmail/Yahoo/etc....
• It does not even let you edit the contact within the plug-in.  You have to make the changes within your own Address book and then sync the changes with their Xobni One Service.

If you are using a Mac or Linux, you are out of luck.

In other words, there really is no way to see exactly what information Xobni One has on their servers, or have the option to edit it, or tell the server which service should take priority over the others.  I don't know about you, but that scares me a little, no matter how secure they say it is.  I want to at least be able to see all of my information that they have on their servers, as well as edit it.

Gist, on the other hand, is a web, or "cloud' based application.  It is accessible wherever you can get on the web.  In addition, while, they did release an Outlook plug-in, it's only purpose is to scan and import changes to the existing database in the cloud.  Again, though, it would be nice if those changes could then be pushed back out to the address book.

Winner: Gist

• Email Indexing
• Address Book Integration
• Mobile