I've spoken with many people who love Plaxo and it's ability to help them stay in touch with friends, family, and co-workers. Most of these people were first introduced to Plaxo when they received a Plaxo Update Request email sent to them by a Plaxo member. The Update Request led them to responding to the member and then optionally trying the Plaxo service for themselves. The rest as they say, is history. But what's most interesting is, as useful as they can be, Update Requests are arguably the single most controversial feature of Plaxo.

I wanted to examine this topic in greater detail by answering some of the common questions I'm often asked about Update Request emails.

Q: What is an Update Request email?

A: Quite simply, an Update Request is a way to stay in touch through the use of email. It is the most effective way for Plaxo members to stay in touch with non-Plaxo members. With the Update Request email, the Plaxo member sends their updated contact info as a vCard attachment to a selected contact. The recipient can easily add the Plaxo member's information to their own address book with a single click. The recipient can also respond to the Update Request with their own contact details. Any updated info the recipient provides is inserted back into the Plaxo member's address book automatically.

But once two people are both Plaxo members and connected to each other, Update Request emails become a thing of the past. Two connected Plaxo members can automatically stay in touch with other without the use of emails or manual updating.

Q: What makes Update Request emails so controversial?

A: Update Request are delivered via email to the selected contact. Unfortunately, spam and other junk email has made people very protective about what arrives into their Inboxes. For some, they may feel update request emails are an unwanted intrusion on their privacy and they would prefer not to receive Update Request emails sent to them by Plaxo members. It is beyond our service to determine how a member may have acquired a person's email information or why they wish to stay in touch, but I have found there is typically some reasonable explanation.

Nonetheless, Plaxo does provide a mechanism for people to instruct us to block further update requests sent to their email address through Plaxo. An opt-out link is included within each Update Request email processed through Plaxo. While we can not stop someone who maintains a person's email addreses from attempting to send an update request, as the service provider, we can block the message as it is processed through our service.

Q: Who sends Update Request emails?

A: Plaxo members send Update Request emails. Plaxo members control when, to whom, and the personalized message content of each Update Request message sent to a contact. Plaxo members send Update Requests to selected contacts within their own address book that they wish to stay in touch with.

Plaxo does not send Update Request messages. We act as a service provider for the processing of Update Requests messages and any responses the Plaxo member may receive. This is similar to sending an email through Yahoo! The user selects when, to whom, and the personalize message content of the message and Yahoo! processes their message and attempts to deliver the message to the specified recipients.

Q: Then why do some people believe Plaxo is the sender of Update Requests emails?

A: There may be a variety of reasons why some people incorrectly believe Plaxo is the sender of Update Request emails:

• Messages are delivered from Plaxo servers: Each message is processed through our service and therefore originate from our servers. The FROM: identifies the Plaxo member's email address which we feel properly identifies the true sender of the message. But it may appear suspicious that a friend's message is originating from a different domain.
  
• Plaxo branding and formatting included within Update Request: Plaxo formats each Update Request message into a standard HTML template. The layout includes the member's personalized message along with an easy to read "card view" of the recipient's contact details the Plaxo member currently maintains. It is obvious the sender did not format the message themselves, which may lead people to incorrectly believe the message was sent by Plaxo.
  
• Other services: Other Internet services utilize email to send "invitations" to a person's contacts. Unfortunately, some of these services DO send out "invitations" automatically, and people may mistake Update Request for these other automated "invitations".
  
• Impersonal messages: For each Update Request, Plaxo provides default message text which the member can personalize to their own liking. But if the message is left with the default text, people may not recognize with the sender and feel the message was generated automatically.
  
• Excess Update Requests: if multiple people with common friends join Plaxo, this may result in multiple Update Requests being sent from these different members to the same recipient. The recipient may feel Plaxo is sending them multiple requests on behalf of their friends.
  

Q: Do I need to be a Plaxo member to respond to an Update Request email?

A: No.

Q: Are Update Request emails spam messages?

A: Absolutely not! Update Request emails are exactly the same type of emails a person might send when they are changing jobs or moving addresses in order to update their friends and family. The only difference is, the member has chosen to use Plaxo to simplify and improve the overall process.

Plaxo does not send spam, nor support the activities of spammers. Plaxo's Terms of Service specifically prohibits Plaxo members from using Plaxo to send spam. Spamming may include:

• sending an Update Request that is commercial in nature
  
• sending an Update Request to someone the member does not truly know, or who is unlikely to recognize the member as a known contact
  
• failing to respect the privacy of another by continuing to send them update request messages even after requesting the member stop.
  

If someone believes a Plaxo member to be in violation of our Terms of Service, they may report the potential abuse to our Privacy and Abuse Department (abuse @t plaxo.com), where the report will be investigated and followed up on, including the possible removal of the member from the Plaxo Service.

Q: Is it necessary to send Update Requests emails in order to be a Plaxo member?

A: No. There are many Plaxo members who never send an Update Request message or only send Update Requests to a few selected individual contacts. These people primarily use Plaxo for the other provided contact management features and benefits. The choice is left to the Plaxo member.

Q: What is the proper Etiquette when sending Update Request emails?

A: I'm so glad you asked! Please see our Plaxo Etiquette Guideline.