Plaxo 3.0 Rocks! (If you have fewer than 1,000 contacts)

Though I was apprehensive about the all hoopla around Plaxo over the past few weeks, I must admit the unveiling Monday of the new Plaxo 3.0 was stunning and exciting… at first.

I started using Plaxo, oh, 2004? Earlier? Well, a VERY long time. I liked it because it gave me a very nice little interface between my Outlook contacts and an online interface to access those contacts. I can't tell you how many times I was saved when looking up an address or phone number while traveling and the only “phone book” I had access to was Plaxo. I evangelized about it in many presentations over the years.

Plaxo kinda went stale in the last couple of years as there were more and more services wanting “invitations” and “updates” (the beginning of the Social Networking era). People didn't like being bugged about “updating their information for YOU”. Plaxo, of course, is meant to do the updates automatically for EVERYONE in your contact book if EVERYONE was on Plaxo. This, of course, is not even close the reality.

Over the past year, Plaxo made the decision not to fade away into the “roadkill” of Web 2.0. What was hot? What do people want now? The result was Plaxo 3.0.

The first thing you'll notice with the interface is the “omnipotence” of the synchronization options. No longer is it just an Outlook world. Now there's Google contacts, your mobile, and a slew of other places you keep name, numbers and e-mail addresses. Yes, Plaxo attempts to synch them all - to be your ultimate “hub”. This extends into other areas as well - including calendars, tasks and notes - the traditional staples of Outlook.

The feature which really blew my socks off was the new “Pulse” tab. Now this one was different. Not only are you now able to maintain your list of contacts, but you also can keep track of their feeds, flickrs and other online “lifestreaming” events. If taken altogether, Plaxo actually becomes an aggregator or feed reader which could even rival and replace your current Google Reader - as long as the feeds are connected to a particular contact.

While 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 problem. I have over 3,000 contacts. I checked and synchronized everything again and sure enough, everything maxed out at about 977. A new contact added to any of my “Sync Points” did not transfer to another Sync point. Why? Well you need to purchase the Plaxo Premium service for US$49. Ah-ha!

My understanding has always been this “premium” service was an option to “fully optimize” my experience with Plaxo. I never understood it to mean NOTHING occurs after the 1K limit has been met. This is a major let-down.

While I do agree some features such as synching with LinkedIn might have enough value to purchase the premium package, the 1000 contact limit for the freemium service just isn't enough. And really, I DON'T perceive myself as a truly “Power User”.

Give Plaxo at least a try and see how it works with your world. Please be kind to your friends though. They STILL don't appreciate updating YOUR address book.