Comments on: Plaxo Pulls The Social Network Into Mac Mail

By: David Ulevitch

David Ulevitch — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:40:12 +0000

@John McCrea

My desktop and laptop would disagree with your statement.

By: Scott Yates

Scott Yates — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:20:56 +0000

My trackback isn’t working, possibly because of my odd domain:

http://www.sco.tt/scott_yates/.....denti.html

And Mike, really, must you go out of your way to point out what an idiot that reader is? Perhaps you could just suggest that he jot down whatever connection he sees between this post and the NSA (”The same people that framed Pete Rose”) and send it to you via carrier pigeon.

By: Embassy Suites Scottsdale

Embassy Suites Scottsdale — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:29:45 +0000

everyone gets inspired by facebook’s newsfeed but it does not work for good for everyone. Google made one for Orkut but hey, what changed? I got this feeling that lately plaxo doing all this stuff to make some hype and to get sold.

By: Anders Fredriksson

Anders Fredriksson — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:12:01 +0000

I’ve been using Plaxos mac mail client since they first released it half a year ago or something. The first versions were not all that nice and very buggy. But now it is working really nice.

One important thing that I have noticed though, is that people that sign up to social services online very rarely uses their main email address. So this is a problem that is difficult to overcome.

When do we reach a point to trust a company - with a rough history I should add - with our regular email? Or is it just me that use a gmail or hotmail account for those types of services?

I used to use a mailinator.com address before I dared to give my gmail account, and now… well it might be ready to move on to my regular email.

//Anders

By: Gabe

Gabe — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:58:56 +0000

Setting aside all the obvious issues with Plaxo (spam, poor coding, “also ran” status) - and I’m a Plaxo *fan* if you can believe it - I think the real problem with this app is its context.

How often do you actually look at the address book? I often quick dial numbers in my phone (doesn’t require full address book lookup) and direct type my contact’s names in Mac Mail (ditto). The address book is only accessed directly by me when I need to make a change to someone’s info, or if my phone and mac are out of synch. Now if they added a feeds system to my address book, then maybe I’d find it more interesting.

Of course, since I live in New York, I sometimes (sheepishly) have to look up a fax number. Maybe that lowbrow/lowtech moment is when Plaxo plans to ensnare me.

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:49:08 +0000

I think “Privacy Please” tried to call her.

By: Marcin Grodzicki

Marcin Grodzicki — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:20:34 +0000

I wonder whether we actually are experiencing social sites 2.0 coming to life. FaceBook, MySpace and all others (like our local grono.net) are maybe usefull - definitely addictive - but somehow artificial to me. I mean, it’s a communication tool you didn’t need before and probably would never miss on your own.
This thing is different. It utilises something you do all the time (mailing) while expanding it with additional information (up-to-date-status, what you do etc.). In essence, Facebook was meant to do just that, but instead it became a virtual space for a (definitely pleasant) waste of time. Now, I would expect more social networks expanding around our daily habitual activities. In other words - niche social networks for things we really do.
What’s your take on it guys? Michael?

By: Paul Capestany

Paul Capestany — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:17:57 +0000

lol @ Arrington agreeing with ‘privacy please’ being an idiot.

Block his IP mike, retarded comments on your blog tarnish your brand and make intelligent commenters less likely to join further discussions.

By: Sar

Sar — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:04:34 +0000

I’ve been syncing my Plaxo and Mac Address book for awhile now and have never had a problem. The Pulse part is new - and kind of annoying I think. I have liked the sync feature though; it keeps my iTouch updated too.

By: John McCrea

John McCrea — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:14:59 +0000

@ David Ulevitch. That is very old information, relating to a beta release from a long time ago. That issue was fixed several releases ago.

By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:42:55 +0000

privacy please - honestly, you’re an idiot.

By: pablo

pablo — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:24:00 +0000

“Privacy please” - please STFU

By: David Ulevitch

David Ulevitch — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:13:31 +0000

Too bad Plaxo has a disastrous flaw where they can totally hose your Apple Address Book by removing all your metadata in your AddressBook records:

They bury their-address-book destroying feature down deep: http://support.plaxo.com/bin/a.....;topic=128

Here’s the money-winning quote: “Plaxo for Mac does not sync every field/option of the Apple Address Book (at least for now). However, we do sync the most commonly used fields and support a rich collection of contact data.”

I used to recommend everyone I know use Plaxo to save their sync’ing issues between Macs and iPhones and other apps, but now I’m just trying to recover from the clobbering job it did. Thank god for backups.

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:48:40 +0000

Looks a bit like this http://blog.fruux.net project

By: Privacy please

Privacy please — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:29:09 +0000

I have question. How do you feel if this is your girlfriend’s address?

By: Privacy please

Privacy please — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:26:40 +0000

It doesn’t matter if real or not real. Some people don’t feel right either.

Aways put black highlight on address on JPG.

By: Bold Lentil

Bold Lentil — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:26:03 +0000

This is basically address book synchronization plus a social action ‘ping’ right? These seem like they are actually two different (but hopefully consistent) social graphs. Will have to try it out.

By: John McCrea

John McCrea — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:20:22 +0000

She’s not a real person. Random numbers.

By: Privacy please

Privacy please — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:16:52 +0000

This is not Good. Plaxo could get into trouble. You show workplace and home address. I think you need to see Harrison ford “Firewall” the movie.

You see. People show this. This would attract pedophiles, stalkers, rapist, ghost calls, etc.

If you saw this live news. Woooah… Does Plaxo or Techcrunch have premission to show Joan Mayer’s privacy? You must ask or put black highlight on Address, Business work,etc.

By: Terence Pua

Terence Pua — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:14:39 +0000

If those are Joan’s real phone numbers, I hope you have her permission