Should I manage my contacts with Plaxo?
Plaxo launched v3.0 of it’s online contact management service/tool today, and since it’s in the news you might be wondering if you should use it (or restart using it if you have been away from it for a while).
First, just what is Plaxo and what’s all the hype about v3.0 anyway? Plaxo is a service that let you sync your contacts, calendar, task, and notes (Outlook) online. It was a social network of sorts so that when one of your contacts who is also on Plaxo changes their information, you are updated. Also if you add a new person who is on Plaxo, then you’ll get their contact info. Often this meant you got a more complete contact card for that person.
Calendar, task, and note sync, pretty much the same, except just focused on you. From Outlook this was done via a toolbar. When I used it under XP and Outlook 2003 it was pretty good. Kept my contacts up to date and such. The big complaint about Plaxo in the past was the “invite your friends to Plaxo” that it seemed to send out on its own. Not cool. Version 3.0 is supposed to have reduced/stopped this.
Now, the big question … well should I use it? If you asked me on Friday I would have said, yes. Go for it. Having that online backup of all my contacts saved my tush on more than one occasion. I liked getting detailed contact information from people when I added just their e-mail address to my address book. I also liked being able to update my contact info there and figure a good number of important folks would get that update.
Today, though, Plaxo 3.0 came out. Om Malik, Scoble, and Web Worker Daily all have coverage and reviews. The gist is that Plaxo has realized that to stay in the social network game, they have to help people connect the dots. Bring your Outlook, Yahoo!, Gmail, LinkedIn, and other contact lists into a cohesive whole. So they spiffed up the interface, added a ton of new sync points, and this new thin called “Pulse” where you can see items from your contacts’ various feeds (Flickr, blogs, etc). I really thought this was going to be awesome. Then reality hit.
First warning sign was Scoble having trouble using Outlook 2007 and the new Plaxo toolbar. I had shied away from Plaxo for a while because of that. Hmm. I was having a good bit of trouble getting it working. It get stalling. Second, and the stake in Plaxo’s heart for me, was from Web Worker Daily. I noted a mention that a $50/yr premium subscription would allow syncing of more than 1000 contacts. Uh oh. Before I could sync my 1800+ contacts (I’m now down to 1752), but I couldn’t use the duplicate remover, etc. That’s fine, I could deal with that. I didn’t thing WWD could be right, so I had to check for myself. Yep, if I want to sync all of my contacts I have to pay $50 a month. Nice job of letting me know Plaxo.
Lots of us who have been around in business for a while have a ton of contacts. The contact lists for some of the VCs I know must be immense. I guess they are paying or leaving.
Should you use Plaxo? Maybe. If you have a lot of contacts, don’t bother. If you can’t sync them all for free…then why sync a portion of them? That is just stupid. Maybe limit non-premium folks to once a day sync, I don’t care. If you have a smaller number of contacts, I say it’s worth a try. If you’re using Outlook 2007, proceed with caution.
Final word:
Plaxo 3.0 does look cool, and has added some very powerful sync point, but for people will 900 or more contacts (I say 900 because chances are you’ll add another 100 soon enough) you have to pay to have it be useful.
Update: I was wrong. It appears that by trying to sync Outlook and Gmail and getting stalled with all the traffic it seemed that I couldn’t do it. Well encouraged by Robert (PacificIT), who got it to work with his 3,000 contacts, I tried again and everything synced up nicely. Thank you to Joseph Smarr who left the comment to officially set me straight.
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POSTED IN: Cool tools, E-mail, Internet tips, MS Office, Outlook, Software tips
2 opinions for Should I manage my contacts with Plaxo?
Plaxo 3.0 Rocks! (If you have fewer than 1,000 contacts) » pacificIT
Jun 25, 2007 at 6:24 pm
[…] I glowed about this feature alone this morning, Tris Hussey pointed out one major flaw Plaxo has had and continues to have. A 1,000 contact limit. Uh-oh. That’s a […]
NN
Jul 2, 2007 at 4:11 am
Plaxo is slow and expensive, but I like the idea.
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