XING has launched its first OpenSocial applications -- "XING News" and "Ask XING" -- as beta versions. The company is adopting a viral approach here, allowing the social applications to distribute throughout the network. Beta testers' profiles and information about their activities in the "What's new in my network" ticker let other members know that they are using the apps and how they are using them -- prompting other members to discover the new features and install them for themselves. In the first five days since the launch, the number of beta testers rose from around 200 to more than 30,000, resulting in a record high in the level of traffic on the XING website.

XING is a launch partner of the open programming standard OpenSocial, along with Google and others, which defines interfaces for social applications and enables developers to program interoperable applications for a range of different social networks. XING is amongst the first group of companies involved in the initiative, which also includes networks such as MySpace, Friendster, Orkut and Ning.

"XING News" and "Ask XING": News filtering and knowledge sharing

XING members will immediately benefit from the new apps "XING News" and "Ask XING", which enhance functionality and enrich the user experience on the platform. The beta version of "XING News" is a social news service that enables XING members to discover and share news from multiple sources filtered by the XING community and their own XING contacts -- ensuring a high degree of relevance and a high interest factor. The app also allows users to comment on and rate individual news items, facilitating interaction between members.

"Ask XING" enables members to ask questions and get answers by tapping into the collective pool of expertise that the entire XING community has to offer. Whatever information XING members are looking for, they can use the app to ask for advice and suggestions, receive valuable input from others and even share their own knowledge with others as well.

XING steps up its rate of innovation once again

The launch of the first two apps "XING News" and "Ask XING", built by the XING team, marks a further acceleration of XING's innovation drive: At the same time, the technical infrastructure has also been laid to ensure the rapid launch of other new applications over the coming weeks, including those developed by partners using OpenSocial.

Jason Goldberg, Chief Product Officer at XING AG, commented on this exciting new phase of innovation as follows: "OpenSocial allows us to utilize the significant potential of external partners at speed. This brings immediate benefits for our members as they gain access to valuable tools, content, and services in a wide range of product categories. We are already working with several international partners on integrating more applications, which will launch on the platform in the very near future."

User involvement is also being given top priority in the ongoing development of the new OpenSocial apps. The previous beta launch of Company Profiles and the "Members you may know" info box already demonstrated XING's commitment to making new features available to members at a much earlier stage and then integrating user feedback and input into the further development of functionalities and services. XING has also introduced the feedback tool "UserVoice", which is also being used for the OpenSocial apps, with a view to effectively consolidating the wide variety of user requests and feedback, and then rapidly applying this information in development processes.