Ray’s web 2.0 business minitests: OpenBC (Xing)
by
on November 08, 2006,
Theses minitests are purely about real business potential, not about the technology behind it.
You all probably have heard about OpenBC. It is the main competitor to LinkedIn and now has about 2 million users and soon will be renamed Xing due to Chinese involvements (investment?).
Its’ portal lets you write your profile in a user-friendly way and helps you to find other profiles quite swiftly and accurately. The sad thing is that you have to upgrade to a paid account in order to see unlimited profiles in your network, instead of just the people who are directly connected to you.
Unlike LinkedIn it is not so much recruiter-oriented. OpenBC seems to attract mainly small-business users and independent advisors. It also lets you state your business objective. Each keyword is indexed and thus searchable. Therefore its’ business use is more extensive and more usable than LinkedIn although the amount of users is a lot less than on the LinkedIn portal.
Another thing I very much like with the OpenBC community is that they arrange evenings where people can meet each other and network. It has local (area) structures and meeting meetings. The people who are running it are very enthusiastic and friendly. I have been to a number of such meetings. There are no entrance fees, the drinks are free and the people are just having a good time.
Also, online there is no competition as to ‘who has the largest network’, like on LinkedIn.
It doesn’t matter. Even if you have no contacts at all, you can still see all the other members (provided that you have upgraded to a $ 6 dollar per month account).
It has no direct IM integration, but you can name your Skype address. A button will connect you directly to another networker using Skype (download is necessary).
SummarySo, in my opinion it is a lot more ‘friendly’ and ‘usable’ than LinkedIn. They just don’t have the amount of people LinkedIn does. Also people on OpenBC are more connected to small businesses.
| Key-web 2.0 factor | Points (1-10) | Remarks |
| 1) Manage and view profile |
8 |
Good: simple user interface. Bad: you have to pay to get the full benefit |
| 2) Manage contacts |
9 |
Good: reasonably good batch up- and down-loading. On my computer the exchange tools were not stable. |
| 3) Communication options |
9 |
Email, Skype (!) and personal meetings |
| 4) Effective business use |
7 |
Focused on small business, training, coaching, consulting. |
| 5) Growing potential |
9 |
Market-leader in its niche |
| 6) Money making potential |
7 |
Depends on the insight of their staff if online services will be integrated |
| Total |
49 |
Verdict: very good (once you pay) |
NB: Please forward me the portals you would like to have tested: bel3bel@yahoo.com
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Shallow
Bob
CopyrightLawSucks 
kinghajj 
Michael Fidler 
openBC/XING says thank you! Watch out http://www.xing.com in a few days and let me know, if we can hit the 49! ;-D