I have a Plaxo account. I set it up last year to try it out. It seemed like a good idea, an online address book where I could store all my contacts info and have those data available whereever I had an Internet connection.
The reality though is a little different.
When I set up my account I followed the instructions for importing my contact info from my Mac Address Book. The import failed. I tried again several months later. Same result. I didn’t try any more after that.
A contacts db with no contact data is useless and I wasn’t about to invest time in manually entering the hundreds of contacts I have into Plaxo one by one.
I get the occasional email from Plaxo telling me that someone else has added my details to Plaxo and that I can now add their details to my account. I worry about the amount of emails Plaxo sends out - it must get annoying for some people to be constantly receiving update requests.
I received such an email this morning so I logged into Plaxo for the first time in months only to be amazed at how slow it now runs. It was like swimming through treacle!
It is a shame really - I like the idea but the execution, in this case is very poor.
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I agree although I liken the experience to swimming through stuffing.
I find I never really use the online features of Plaxo - even the update requests I never bother with - the nice thing is once someone registars with Plaxo the update requests go away as your info gets pushed automatically.
What Plaxo is eceptionally useful for is contact syncronizing on multiple systems. We’ve got two desktops, 2 Laptops and now a Moto Q w/Outlook in the house. With Plaxo any contact addition in any of those systems autmatically gets updated in all of the other systems. Plus after a hard drive wipe or failure it just takes two minutes to have everything back in the system. A couple of the systems even sync meetings and tasks.
That feature alone is worth the occasional bit of frustration for me.
Plaxo is an excuse to spam, period. What is needed is an online address book that promises faithfully, and believably, that they won’t abuse the date. You’d believe me if I set it up, but would you believe anyone else? (Answer: If you do, you’re a fool.)
{Read “abuse the data”. Drunk, sorry.)
I always liked Plaxo and have been using it for a good few years now.
While it just does NOT work on a Mac and the online service sucks it is great for keeping track of peoples address details.
It works quite well on a Windows system and lets me very easliy restore or move address data to multiple systems.
As for the Spam aspect; with the amount of tripe still reaching my inbox I am not going to complain about the occasional Plaxe update especially seeing that it has at least some use…
E.
I invite you to try http://www.unyk.com. It’s the best product to manage your contacts easily.
T.
Tom-
If you’re so inclined, I’d really like to see your Mac Address Book to see why it is failing. Generally, we’ve been seeing Plaxo for Mac work quite well without issue for (what appears to be) the vast majority of people who try the software. I’m not having problems on my personal systems but that’s why it is so useful to have the participation of people such as yourself - so that we can make the software good enough to handle a wider representation of people’s situation.
If you’d be willing to work with me/help me, you could use the Apple Addres Book’s Back Up Address Book feature and just send me the archive. I can do an analysis of why the import is failing for you and take some action on it.
I’ll do my best to help others who are facing similar road blocks in using PfM. Just contact me directly. my email is ‘drew’ - and I work ‘@plaxo.com’
Well, i trully agree with you statements and post, Tom. The plaxo looks like having been played out extremely and its executions make it even more worst.