New Plaxo attempts to bridge platforms with Web 2.0

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 26 June 2007 05:04

Your IT - Home IT

There are so many ways to connect with people online these days, that the number of disparate proprietary messaging, email and calendar platforms makes it problematic for users to keep track of all their contacts and appointments. Online address book service Plaxo attempts to solve this problem with its latest softare release, Plaxo 3.0, which employs a new AJAX interface.

Viral contact programs like Plaxo, LinkedIn and others were once regarded with some suspicion by many Internet users. However, the rise in popularity of social networking tools for business has brought an air of respectability to viral networking.

Silicon Valley based Plaxo, founded in 2003 by Napster co-founder Sean Parker, together with Minh Nguyen, Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring, was orginally a service that enabled users to keep their email address books up to date by automatically emailing and sychronising with the listed contacts. This has since been expanded to include calendar syncing. However, syncing across different platforms was limited.

Plaxo 3.0 is claimed the first online address book and calendar to synchronize between Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, AOL, Mac OSX, Thunderbird, and mobile phones. The new free version of Plaxo, still in beta, is designed to build bridges between disparate tools and services with automated, multi-way synchronization.

“After a year of hard work re-tooling our service, this is much more than just another product release; we’re really introducing an all-new Plaxo,” said Todd Masonis, VP of Products. "Plaxo 3.0 is the platform upon which we can build out our ‘sync and share’ vision, giving people access to all their data wherever they need it, and enabling ever richer ways to stay connected with the people who matter in their lives."

Plaxo has trotted out a beta user to support its claim.

"The all-new Plaxo seamlessly integrates with my digital life," said Marc Baizman, Project Manager for NPower, a national network of nonprofit organizations. 
"I have a PC at work, a Mac at home, and I use Outlook, Google Calendar, and iCal and Address Book to keep contacts and appointments. Plaxo just works. I don't have to do anything special; it runs in the background, keeping everything in sync."

Plaxo 3.0 offers a range of access options, including: a new web interface; native client software for Windows and Mac OSX; and several mobile options, including a new WAP 2.0 version for mobile browsers, available at m.plaxo.com.

The service, which until now has only been available in English, is now also localized in French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish.

The new online interface to Plaxo is an AJAX Web 2.0 application, with multiple components, presented in an integrated, interactive environment. 

Key features include:

-- A new sync dashboard for monitoring multiple "sync endpoints"
 
-- An expanded choice of sync endpoints, including:
 
---- Google (starting with Calendar, with Gmail coming soon)

---- Microsoft (Outlook, Outlook Express, Vista Mail, and Hotmail)

---- Yahoo! (Mail and Calendar)

---- Mac OSX Sync Services (for Address Book, iCal, iPhone, and more)

---- AOL (AIM)

---- Mozilla Thunderbird

---- LinkedIn (available as part of Plaxo Premium)

---- Mobile phones
 
---- A new address book, with Find-as-You-Type Search, One-Click Directions (via mashup with Yahoo!), and Click-to-Call (via mashup with Jajah)
 
---- A new calendar, built by the HipCal team (acquired in May 2006), with Upcoming View, Countdowns, Weather (via mashup with Weather Underground), Photos (via mashup with Flickr), and calendar sharing

Plaxo 3.0 also includes Plaxo Pulse, an automated content sharing system, using an RSS type of feed. As contacts post content online, it shows up automatically in a "Pulse tab", based on their sharing settings. Initial feeds include Flickr photos, blogposts, Amazon.com Wish Lists, and Plaxo contact info changes.

The beta download of Plaxo 3.0 can be obtained here.{moscomments}