Plaxo is now fully integrated with FriendConnect--Google's widget-based tool for socially enabling any web site. This means on any site running FriendConnect, you can now securely connect your Plaxo account, see which of your contacts are also on that site, and invite any of your contacts to join that site. And, perhaps coolest of all, you can choose to have any activities you share on that site flow back into Pulse, so your Plaxo connections can keep in touch with you across the web and discover new sites you've found.

This is a truly useful and exciting integration--it's the closest we've come yet to a seamless social web ecosystem, in which users can take their identity and relationships with them across the web, find the people they know at a new site, and share activity back with their existing contacts, creating a virtuous cycle of more social discovery and sharing. This is how the social web should work--rather than having to start from scratch every time you try a new social site (which is still the norm for most sites today), each new experience you have should enrich the others.

This only works when services give their users control over their data and provide them with secure access using open standards. And that's exactly what Plaxo is doing with FriendConnect. When you connect your Plaxo account, we're using OAuth so you don't have to give out your Plaxo password, and you can always choose to revoke access later. And when you share activity from FriendConnect back into Pulse, we're using the OpenSocial 0.8 RESTful Activites API. The only custom integration right now is with our address book API, and we're already working with the community to develop an open standard for that piece of the puzzle too. We firmly believe that acting as an Identity Provider, Social Graph Provider, and Content Aggregator--that is, letting our users take their data and relationships with them across the web and share data back from anywhere--is good for users, good for Plaxo, and good for the Web. And we're just getting started--stay tuned for additional enhancements, including more fine-grained control over which of your family, friends, and business network you want to connect with on other sites, and who you want to see your shared activity from FriendConnect sites!

Here are some screen shots of Plaxo's integration with Google FriendConnect--or you can experience it for yourself on any FriendConnect-powered site.

One of the best features of Plaxo Pulse (and other sites that do social content aggregation) is the ability to have discussions (via comments) about the items being shared. A link to an interesting article, recent photo, YouTube video, Yelp review, tweet, etc. is often the jumping-off point for a rich discussion amongst people who all know and care about each other. In such cases, the comment thread is often far more interesting than the original item that sparked it. Some of these discussions happen privately between mutually connected friends or family members; others are public discussions about public content, but filtered through the people you know, rather than what everyone on the net has to say (look at the comment stream for any YouTube video, and the signal-to-noise issue is obvious).

Most of the time, this system of comments inside aggregators works quite well. But one place where it's never felt quite right is when someone shares their public blog, which also has its own comment stream on the blog's website. In such cases, the conversation can too easily become "fractured", as some people read and post comments on the blog's web site, and others do the same inside an aggregator, but with a different set of comments. Whereas a separate comment thread can be an asset in the case of private or "noisy" content as mentioned above, many blog authors would prefer to maintain a single thread of comments, no matter where their post gets viewed. This issue has been brought up periodically since the early days of Pulse, and it recently saw a resurgence of fervent debate in the blogosphere.

Plaxo's mantra is always to "give our users control", so naturally we're in favor of letting blog authors share their feed inside Pulse and providing a way for comments generated inside Pulse to flow back to the original blog. The problem is, there's no standard way of programmatically interacting with the comment system on an arbitrary blog. So while it's never been our aim to "trap comments" inside Pulse, there hasn't been a good way to set them free. Until now.

Starting today, we've integrated Pulse with a cool startup called Disqus that makes a "smart comment system" plug-in that works with most popular blog software. If you install Disqus to run the comments on your blog, in addition to their standard improvements like threaded comments, rating comments, verifying commenters, integrated forums, and more, you can now also choose to have any blog comments posted inside Pulse also show up on your original blog. This is possible because Disqus provides a common platform with APIs that let blog authors tell Pulse where their blog comments live, and lets Plaxo automatically syndicate any comments posted inside Pulse. So if you write a blog, now you can have the best of both worlds--more people can find and comment on your blog posts using tools like Pulse, and yet you can maintain a single thread of comments for everyone.

Hooking up disqus comment syndication when sharing a blog inside Pulse

Comments posted inside Pulse will then also show up on the original blog post

If you haven't yet shared your blog inside Pulse, now is a great time to set it up. [If you're not already running Disqus on your blog, they have an easy wizard to help you set it up, and it works with most popular blog software, including MovableType, TypePad, Blogger, Tumblr, and self-hosted wordpress, though sadly not yet hosted wordpress blogs on wordpress.com, since they don't let you run JavaScript in plugins.] Then when you hook up your blog to Pulse, you just check "I use Disqus for my blog's comments" and fill in your disqus forum URL (e.g. for my blog http://josephsmarr.com, my associated disqus forum url is josephsmarr.disqus.com). [If you're already sharing your blog inside Pulse, you can click to edit your existing feed and then add your disqus forum url.] Now when anyone sees one of your blog posts inside Pulse and goes to comment, they'll be notified that any comments posted inside Pulse will also appear as a comment on your original blog post. And when they do leave a comment, it will show up on in your disqus-powered comment thread soon afterwards, and without you or them having to do anything. Disqus will notify you of a new comment just as if they'd commented directly on your blog, and similarly the commenter's name, email, and webpage will be automatically filled in along with the comment.

We're excited about this new ability to keep discussions shared across an open social web. It's one more step on the path away from walled gardens and toward a world in which users are empowered because their data is portable. If you're a blogger, give it a try and let us know what you think!

--Joseph Smarr, Chief Platform Architect

PS: If you have any feedback on this integration--or anything else about Plaxo--let us know (using the disqus-powered comments on this blog post, of course--whether you're reading this on our website or from inside Pulse!).

UPDATE: Check out the post from our vp of marketing, John McCrea, on this topic.

For users and developers that care about opening up the social web, one of the key building blocks for establishing a durable and portable online identity is OpenID. Recently the excitement and adoption of OpenID has skyrocketed, with Yahoo! providing OpenIDs for their entire userbase, Google's Blogger both providing and consuming OpenIDs, and several large organizations joining the OpenID foundation. Coupled with the security and usability enhancements added to the OpenID 2.0 spec late last year, it seems that OpenID is really going mainstream.

With the great progress made on the technical (privacy and security) aspects of OpenID and the increased adoption by mass-consumer companies, the user experience of OpenID is increasingly a topic of focus. There's a user-education hurdle to get used to the idea of logging into a site using an account you already have elsewhere, and the experience of bouncing between sites and attaching an OpenID can be jarring. An exciting aspect of Yahoo's approach to OpenID was trying to push the technology itself "under the hood" so users just see a friendly "Sign in with your Yahoo! ID" button and are taken to a familiar Yahoo login page. Now a new startup called clickpass, which is launching today, is taking things even further with their magic one-click signin button that removes the back-and-forth dance entirely, and integrates with a number of popular OpenID providers and consumers--now including Plaxo.

When you go to sign into Plaxo, you'll now see the distinctive orange clickpass button under the "Other ways to sign in" section (alongside our other OpenID integration points). The first time you click it, it will take you to a setup screen on clickpass's site that asks you to log into Plaxo if you already have a Plaxo account, or if you're new to Plaxo, you can sign up for a Plaxo account using your clickpass OpenID (no need to create a separate Plaxo password). Thereafter, when you come to Plaxo and click on the clickpass button, you're immediately signed into Plaxo. That's it, just one click.

It's now definitely the quickest and easiest way to sign into Plaxo, especially when you're on a different computer that doesn't remember your saved passwords. And what's cool is that you can hook up clickpass to a bunch of the sites you use, so you just log into clickpass and get one-click access to all the sites you've attached. And that first-time merge/signup page you get when using a new site is always the same, since it's hosted by clickpass. So the idea is that users should quickly learn how to sign into any site that supports clickpass, since the button is recognizable, the user flow is always the same, and the whole process is designed by a company that's primary focus is OpenID usability. Hopefully this will also encourage more sites to start consuming OpenIDs, since now there's a stronger case to be made that it's something mainstream users can understand and benefit from. There's still more work to be done on OpenID technology and usability of course, but this is a major step forward.

I just got back from Google's Campfire One event, where they officially launched the OpenSocial project. As long-time advocates of the Open Social Web, we're thrilled that Google is leading this initiative, and even more thrilled that it's been received so positively! This is a huge deal, and it's perfectly aligned with our vision of empowering users to regain control of their social data across all the tools they use.

To keep the momentum going, we've been working hard to implement the OpenSocial APIs in Plaxo Pulse, and in fact we've just released it into production, making it the first live OpenSocial implementation in the wild. So if you'd like to play around with open social gadgets or develop one yourself, there's no need to wait any longer!

Now, if you've looked closely at the details of OpenSocial, you know it's still a work in progress. The APIs are only at version 0.5 and they're still changing almost daily. So expect a bit of a bumpy road for the next few weeks, and be aware that things may break along the way. But we'll do our best to keep things running smoothly and keep up with the changes as the specs continue to develop. [One quick note: for now we're only allowing specific apps from known developers that we've white-listed to run in Pulse. Email us at OpenSocial@plaxo.com if you want to get your app white-listed, and as the APIs and security models get more fleshed out, we'll ease off these temporary restrictions.]

We're releasing support for OpenSocial now because we want to make sure that everyone who's getting excited about it has a place they can channel their energy and get things running sooner. To that end, we've done our best to comprehensively support the existing OpenSocial APIs and integrate them richly within the Pulse experience. Specifically:

• users can add now add gadgets to their Pulse profiles (click on My Profile at the top of Pulse and then Applications on the left side)
• each gadget also has a full canvas page inside Pulse
• we support complete profile and contact info for the profile and friends-list APIs
• we support storing gadget prefs via the people data APIs
• gadgets can create activity streams and publish activity data, which will show up in the normal Pulse stream (alongside the existing feeds in pulse) with rich rendering support
• each activity can be commented on like normal feed items in Pulse

In addition, we've built OpenSocial gadget support into our new Dynamic Profiles feature, which means just as you can now show a separate profile (photo, bio, contact info, interests, etc.) to your business contacts and your friends, you can also add gadgets separately to your professional and personal profiles, and also control which sets of contacts see the activity streams from those gadgets. So if you just want to emote with your friends and not your business colleagues, now you can!

In case you can't tell, we're really excited to see the social web continuing to open up, and you can bet that we'll continue to push for even greater control, portability, and integration across all the sites and services you use. This is a major step forward, and there is plenty more to look forward to soon!

PS: To celebrate the launch of OpenSocial in Plaxo Pulse and to demo it to anyone that's interested, we're having an OpenSocial "Open Social" at Plaxo on Friday afternoon at 4pm in our office, and everyone's invited. Get all the details on upcoming (and don't forget to add the upcoming feed to your pulse stream so your friends can see you're coming! ;)).

--Joseph Smarr, Chief Platform Architect

At my parent's home, you can always find a stack of calling cards next to the phone in the kitchen. It's the cheapest way for them to keep in touch with their family in Vietnam. But calling cards have always been such a hassle. Minutes run out, some cards don't work, and the rates really aren't all that cheap. My mom was paying about $0.27/minute to call her niece in Vietnam with a calling card. Over the weekend, though, my sister and I got my mom to try her first international call via Plaxo Click to Call. She converted solely on the cost. At $0.16/min., she talked to her niece for longer and with no interruptions from minutes running out on her calling card. And she did it all from the convenience of her landline phone.

You, dear reader, can also find the Plaxo Click to Call button in your address book. It's the easiest way to make inexpensive phone calls. By easy, I mean no headsets, no downloads, and no microphones. Just Plaxo, you, and your phone. And by inexpensive, I mean less than $0.0212/min to China, $0.0196/min to Germany, and only $.001/min in the US. You can check out the rest of the rates here. By partnering with Jajah, our members get the additional benefit of not having to remember or type in any phone numbers, and they always know the number they're calling is up-to-date with Plaxo's smart address book.

Here's how you can initiate a call:

Jajah in Outlook	Jajah in Plaxo Online

1. Go to your Plaxo Online address book or get the latest Plaxo plug-in for Outlook to make calls from your Outlook address book. (Plans are in the works to integrate with Outlook Express and our other clients too.)
2. Decide who you want to call. Click on the purple button. (See picture above).
3. Plaxo transfers the numbers to Jajah's website.
4. Hit the green "Place Call" button on Jajah's website.

THEN...


5. Your phone rings.


6. Your contact's phone rings.


7. And you can start chatting.

Mom doesn't always "get" what I do at Plaxo, but now she sort of gets it and she likes it. Now, when she can't get in touch with me on the weekends, she can call Vietnam :)

-- Janice (Hi, Mom!) Ta, Product Manager

Answer: HipCal (www.hipcal.com).

Plaxo announced today the acquisition of HipCal, LLC, based in Troy, NY. You can read the formal press release at: Plaxo's website. However, I wanted to give you an insider's view of why we joined forces with these young guns from upstate New York.

You'll have to read the entire article to find out what we both have in common with pimps. ;-)

Plaxo has a calendar?

You may not know this, but Plaxo has had an online calendar for some time. Yup, we really do. As a matter of fact, we were using AJAX techniques two years ago before it was called AJAX (RSI thanks to Terry Chay and Joseph Smarr).

But, to be really honest, we did not put the same amount of effort and resources on our calendar as we did on everything else. Our users have been asking us to do for calendars what we did for address books--not just make them available everywhere, but make them easy to coordinate with friends, colleagues, and customers. This has been bothering us for awhile and it's one of those things that we put into the "someday" category. Well, this is that day.

Exploding calendars

So, it all started while we were watching with amusement as startup after startup announced their jump into the "new, Web 2.0 calendar" space -- the list is long. But, one of them caught our eye, HipCal (and apparently the Web 2.0 Awards and SXSW festival's eye too). I should mention that a few of the others look quite impressive as well -- 30 boxes also appears to stand our from the crowd.

Note that a good friend of mine, Mark Fletcher (ONElist, eGroups, Plaxo, Bloglines), says "Whenever you have more than one funded company in the calendar space, you know you are in the bubble." :-)

Anyway, back to the story...

So, the first thing that we noticed was that www.hipcal.com was extremely fast and simple. The design had a natural ease about it that appealed to everyone here and it was extremely snappy. The second thing that we noticed was that the team was very engaged and dedicated to their users, even though they had classes to attend at school (RPI)!

Garret Heaton

So, on a whim, I sent Garret Heaton, [the guy who started it as part of school project], a simple email: "Hey, love your site. Interested in talking about working together?" Garret replied fairly quickly with enthusiasm and we got started.

A few days later, during a conference call with the HipCal guys (all five of them), we quickly got into a discussion about joining Plaxo. And, at some point during the conversation, I said: "Think about it this way. Would you rather be in Troy, New York, in three feet of snow, working out of your parents' garage OR would you rather be sitting in a nice house on the beach in sunny California with all the beer you can drink and parties every night." After about about 15 seconds of silence--in which I was thinking that I made a huge tactical mistake--the other end of the phone burst into laughter and the group screaming "we like the second option better!" :-)

So, we flew the guys out to California, but had some trouble with the car rental since most car agencies require the driver to be 25 or over. Once we cleared that up, we got down to business. By the end of the day, we all realized that this was meant to be (i.e. they are five amazing, talented, and nice guys) and left us with a great feeling.

That was easy, now for the hard part

We signed the deal a few weeks later and have been making plans for a new calendar ever since. The guys will be moving to California in June. [Note: I failed to mention that buying a home on the California coast would cost a small fortune. ;-] The guys will be looking for a house to rent in Mountain View/Palo Alto very soon -- let me know if you have any leads.

Stay tuned for the big changes coming from Plaxo's new calendar team.

btw: The original name of HipCal was MyPIMP.com. And, in case you didn't know, "PIM" is a common acronym for Personal Information Manager.

Garret Heaton, Tawheed Kader, Pete Curley, Glenn Dixon, and Chris Rivers

More photos of the HipCal guys

Here's a photo of Pete Curley. We haven't figured out what he does yet, but we know that it has somethng to do with refilling the kegs. Oh, and Pete designed the cute little hippo on the HipCal site.

Here's a photo of Chris ("Silent Chris") Rivers. He's generally ....., um, er, ..... silent. But, once you get a few margaritas into him, watch out because he turns into "Crazy Chris"! He is rumored to have a very large shoe collection.

Here's a photo of Glenn Dixon. When we first met, I thought that he was "Silent Chris" and kept wondering "he talks a lot, I wonder why they call him Silent Chris...?" Glenn just recently got out of prison, but don't let his tatoos and rough exterior fool you... he's a teddy bear on the inside.

Here's a photo of Tawheed ("Wheed") Kader. He's sorta like the George Harrison of the HipCal group. [Not really sure what I meant by that, but it sounded good when I wrote it.] We don't understand what his nickname means yet, but he sure seems excited about moving to California.

UPDATE: Looks like we've got some initial reactions coming in :)

• Om Malik
• Techcrunch
• Red Herring

If you've been following some of the postings here on this Blog as well as elsewhere on the blogosphere, you know there's been much discussion regarding 'acquaintance spam' and abusive use of the Plaxo service. Much of this abuse can be traced to the once-prominent Update Contact Wizard (UCW) feature. The UCW allows members to select individuals from their address book and send them an email asking for updated contact information.

Todd Masonis already wrote about some of the steps we are taking to prevent potential abuse. All of these changes are now in place. I believe the most significant change is the removal of the UCW from the new registration flow. Previously, when someone would join Plaxo, a new user was encouraged to update their address book by running the UCW. As a result, new users accounted for the vast majority of update request emails sent. Today, the UCW has been removed from the new user registration flow. New or existing users are no longer encouraged to run the UCW and the UCW button has been removed from the Plaxo Toolbar. Furthermore, newer Plaxo clients such as Thunderbird, Mac, and AIM do not include the UCW.

For members who may continue to run the UCW, perhaps because they have an older Plaxo Outlook client or they launch the UCW manually, we have also added additional service controls which limit the number of update requests a member can send. Additional throttling controls are also in the works, and we are actively moving away from using update request emails entirely. We hope and believe these changes will make a big difference, but we intend to remain vigilant in our efforts to eliminate any abusive use of the service. To that end, we would appreciate your help in the effort by reporting to us any inappropriate or suspicious use of the Plaxo service.

Reporting Abuse:

If you feel your privacy has been violated or that a member is abusing the Plaxo system, we ask for your assistance in reporting the abuse to our Plaxo Abuse Department (abuse @plaxo.com). We take every report of abuse very seriously, and each report is investigated and followed up on.

If you're running a recent version of the Plaxo toolbar for Outlook or Outlook Express, you'll see the Click to Connect button and drop-down whenever you get an e-mail from someone. One of the options is to "Get a map or directions" for the person that sent you that message. It's handy when you need to visit someone's office or get driving directions to their home.

Click-to-connect button inside an Outlook e-mail message

Click-to-connect expanded to show the sender's contact info and relevant actions

Well now it's even handier, because when you click that link, you'll get a page with the map embedded inside it. You can toggle between showing your contact's work and home address (if the person has chosen to share that information with you), and you can also click to get driving directions from your own home or work address.

Embedded map page linked from Click-to-Connect

We chose to use Yahoo! Maps for our mashup because they provide automatic geo-coding (turning a mailing address into latitute/longuitude), so it was easy to say "show me a map of Mark Jen's work address" and bam!

Hope you find this fun and useful!

--Joseph Smarr, Plaxo Server Engineer

Believe it or not, a common opening line in support emails is "no one will probably read this, but..." This sentiment is magnified for companies that offer the unusual combination of free service and tech support. Combine this with previous bad experiences with online customer support and the opening line isn’t too surprising.

We consistently beat our target 24-hour response time on standard email support channels and we boast a round-the-clock VIP support channel that's resolving most of our Premium member's issues within a few hours. But we understand that a single email may not have all of the information needed to diagnose a user's problem. Several emails may be sent back and forth before the nature of the issue can be fully understood. Before you know it, 3 days have passed and the member is ready to throw their computer out the window.

We recently decided to offer chat support to cut the wait time and provide immediate support. It wasn’t as simple as adding an icon to our Support page. We needed a tool that was highly reliable (no dropped chats), very low chat latency (it doesn't take 10 seconds before the other person receives what you just typed) and easy to use for the user. But there were many things to also consider besides the obvious. We had to decide on cost, administration, security, back-end requirements, front-end requirements, protocol support, scalability, user convenience, operator convenience, monitoring, real-time statistics and analysis, multi-chat ability, images and so on. And it's a bigger challenge with many providers offering closely the same features.

We also had to hand select from our customer care team that fit this style of support. When answering support emails, you have time on your side - time to research the problem, time to consult with engineers and time to compose a neatly written response. With chat support, everything happens on the spot. It's important to have an answer within seconds, type complete sentences quickly and accurately, and staying away from using IM shortcuts. IMHO, IM shortcuts personally confuse me, LOL. But one of our most unanticipated challenges was training our Live Chat team how to gently let down our customers who ask them out on dates. Who knew that would be one of the most often asked questions?

We’ve found that an overwhelming 98% of those who use Live Chat are satisfied with their support simply because the resolution time is within minutes instead of hours. But is chat for everyone? Probably not. Personally, I prefer shooting out an email and waiting for an answer to read at my convenience. But it's good to offer a different kind of support channel for someone who may need an answer right now than right later.

In our new Plaxo eCards release, you'll find even more ways to add a little personality to your eCards, including one of my favorite new features -- custom card borders.

Three of our graphic designers, Christian Bohland, Michael Rowley, and Bill Tani, came up with the designs, playfully exploring borders made of different physical materials and objects. Terry Chay wrote the algorithm to create the borders across cards of all different sizes and Trevor Gattis engineered the eCards customization panel. Didn't they do a great job?

A wooden frame:	A metal frame:
A cool gel border:	Prickly barbed wire:
An incomplete puzzle edge:	A spray of sunflowers:

And there's more to check out! I must warn you, though. They do get addictive. I went a little crazy this morning creating cards for this post and can't wait to get even more borders up soon...maybe a goth border, shaggy 70's border, bubble wrap border, bling border...hmmmm...

What new borders would you add to Plaxo eCards?

One of the coolest aspects of Plaxo is that your address book is self-updating. When Plaxo members in your address book change their contact information, it also gets automatically updated in your address book. Vice versa, when you change your contact info on Plaxo, people who have you in their address book can get your latest info. The importance and value of this feature is increasing rapidly as the Plaxo network continues to grow and the percentage of Plaxo members in your address book continues to rise.

Today we are enhancing this core feature by giving Plaxo members greater control over how they notify others and receive notification of such changes.

Receiving Member-to-Member Notifications

New choices, now available from your communication preferences, include:

• Daily or weekly digest. Instead of getting individual member-to-member e-mail notifications each time someone changes their contact info, you can choose to get a single weekly message.
• Silent update. You have the option to suppress member-to-member notification e-mails globally, or for specific individuals in your address book.

Communicating Your Own Changes

When you’re updating your own contact information online you also have a new “silent mode” option, which still automatically updates Plaxo members who have permission to see your contact info, but withholds sending them an e-mail notification. This option is particularly useful when making small changes to your contact info.

As always, you continue to have control over who gets your home or work contact info via your sharing options .

We hope these changes improve the Plaxo experience even more and as always, we want to hear what you think.

--Dassi Shusterman, Plaxo Product Manager

I came across the following blog today titled: Outted by Plaxo. In his article, the author warns people of blowing the news of an upcoming job or acquisition by prematurely updating your Plaxo cards.

I think this is good advice, and something I'd like to echo here.

The great thing about Plaxo is that it works to keep you updated and connected at all times. When you modify your details, Plaxo automatically updates the address books of other connected members, and these updates occur in near-real time. We certainly want to encourage you to keep your details updated and accurate, but you should also be careful not to inadvertently update others of change events sooner than intended.

To assist in this, a soon-to-be released version of Plaxo will bring some welcomed improvements to the process of updating your Plaxo cards. Prior to saving your updated details, Plaxo will remind you connected members will be automatically updated with your new details. You will also have greater control over the member alert normally generated by your update. You'll soon be able to keep your friends and family members updated with your new details, but if you would prefer the update to be silent (ie: no alert generated), you'll now have that cability. We'll blog more about these features once they are released.

PS: Here are a couple of blogs that highlight how Plaxo alerts have been useful in notifying members of changes in their network. I guess this makes Plaxo an early indicator of job market activity :-)

We try to keep up to speed on what the blogosphere can tell us about how people are using Plaxo. Lately we've seen a few examples of people finding out about important news through their Plaxo network before hearing it through other channels.

First, it looks like Plaxo can help people keep up on employment trends. Dave Evans of Corante blogged about the flight of top people at match.com, which he found out about through Plaxo.

Plaxo also tipped off Derrick Oien that something was happening with SplashBlog, a mobile blogging software company that recently got acquired by Six Apart.

We think it's cool that Plaxo is keeping people updated about what's going on with their friends. Just remember: if your Plaxo cards are public, people you have you in their address book will see the changes you make... but that's the whole point, right? :)

Woo-hoo! The Plaxo Toolbar for Internet Explorer version 1.0 has arrived and we've included some goodies in it for everyone:

1. AIM users: AIM users can now sign in with their AIM screen names and passwords.
2. People who are thoughtful, but lazy: Send eCards directly from the toolbar or while looking at a contact's details. "Thank you" and "Happy Birthday" cards are only a click away.
3. People who are bugged by bugs: While we were at it, we thought we'd fix some bugs too.

Upgrade or download your toolbar now. It's good stuff: http://www.plaxo.com/ietoolbar

Janice Ta, IE Toolbar Product Manager

We released a new version of the Plaxo Toolbar for Outlook and Outlook Express earlier this week. The latest version is 2.7 and it is available immediately for download from the Plaxo website. As always, existing Plaxo toolbar users can upgrade to the latest version by going to the Plaxo / Help / About Plaxo menu and clicking on the upgrade now link.

This client release comes right on the heels of our latest Plaxo server release and the introduction of the Plaxo Open Platform Program and Open API, so I can tell you that Engineering, QA, and Product Management have been extremely busy.

The Plaxo Toolbar v2.7 includes a number of bug fixes, but also adds some very exciting features worth mentioning. The most significant are the enhancements made to the Click-to-Connect button. The CTC is the integrated Plaxo button that appears in the upper right corner when reading an email message. The CTC adds a personal touch to emails by displaying the sender's Plaxo photo on the button of if they are in your address book. Members also find the CTC button a convenient way to add the sender to their address book if they are not already there.

With the v2.7 release, we've enhanced the look and feel of the CTC and added a few more options. The button still shows the Plaxo member's photo and current status if they are already in your address book. But now the CTC button will also show the sender's Plaxo Photo even if they are not in your address book as long as that Plaxo member has already given you access to their information.

Also new is clicking on the CTC button which drops down a at-glance view of the contact showing additional details such as title and phone number. How many times have you received an email from someone and wanted to quickly give the person a call? Now the information is just a click away.

We've also added my personal favorite, a "more info..." button. This button opens up the contact's entry within my address book. For me at least, I often wish to reference the notes field for a contact and the "more info..." button makes it much easier to get to this information.

You still can easily add the person to your address book or send them your updated contact details. You'll also find the options to send the person an eCard or get a map or directions to their location.

Note about maps: Due to limitations with Yahoo Maps, the map feature only works for addresses located in the USA, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and United Kingdom / England. If the contact includes the appropriate Country within their address information, Plaxo will be able to perform a proper look up via Yahoo Maps.

And now with Plaxo Toolbar for Outlook and Outlook Express v2.7 out the door, Engineering is already hard at work on the next release. We should have some very exciting announcements to make soon so stay tuned...

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.

In case you haven’t heard yet, the new Plaxo-enabled version of AIM (called “Triton”) has now been officially released to the public. Thanks to everyone that participated in the beta program. We encourage everyone to download Triton and let us know what you think!

The Triton release is a really big deal for Plaxo. It’s by far the largest and deepest partner-integration we’ve ever done, and it’s going to result in (among other things) a big increase in the number of Plaxo members. This is great news for everyone that uses Plaxo, because it means you’ll be able to automatically stay in touch with more and more of your friends and colleagues. To make it even easier, you can now get connected with fellow Plaxo members in your address book if you know their e-mail address or AIM Screen Name (previously you could only get connected by e-mail address). So there will be more people to connect with, more ways to get connected, and more places where your contact information follows you around and is always up-to-date.

Plaxo-enabling AIM is also a great step forward in our goal of giving users access to their data in whatever application they use. Just like our IE toolbar and Thunderbird toolbar, the new AIM provides another group of users with the ability to build and maintain a universal address book where they need it most, and it extends the reach and value of everyone that uses Plaxo as part of another app. And just like with all our toolbars, users of the new AIM also get web access to their contacts via Plaxo Online, so you can always look up someone’s info while you’re on the go.

Here are some of the features you’ll notice when you download Triton:

• Triton setup wizard. You can create work and home cards to share with your contacts (including our new, more powerful sharing options), build a universal address book by importing your existing contacts from Outlook, Outlook Express, Hotmail, and Yahoo!, and build your Buddy List by finding all your contacts that have an AIM Screen Name. If you’re already a Plaxo member, you can just attach Triton to your existing account, and it will sync your Plaxo address book with Triton.
• Build your Buddy List. This is a really useful feature, especially for people that maintain an address book outside of AIM. Plaxo will look at all the contacts in your address book that have Screen Names (either that you’ve entered or that you’ve received from fellow Plaxo members) and we’ll also look up all AIM members whose Screen Name is linked to an e-mail in your address book. You’ll be surprised how many people you know are on AIM but that you didn’t have in your Buddy List! You can then choose which of those contacts you want to add to your AIM Buddy List. If you’re an existing Plaxo member, you can still run the build Buddy List wizard by launching it from the Edit menu (after you’ve successfully synced your address book the first time).
• Integrated Triton UI. Once you get up and running with Triton, you’ll notice that in addition to your Buddy List, you also have an “Addresses” tab that reveals your Plaxo-enabled address book. Here you can look up extra contact info for your buddies and even choose what info you want to share with them. You’ll also notice the familiar Plaxo icons in the address list for contacts that are also using Plaxo or that you’ve sent an update request to. You can also edit your Plaxo cards from within Triton by going to Edit → Edit My Contact Info.
• AIM enhancements for Outlook. In addition to the new AIM itself, Triton comes with an optional update to the Plaxo Toolbar for Outlook and Outlook Express. In addition to keeping your Outlook and AIM address books in sync, the primary benefit you’ll notice is AIM presence inside Outlook. Click on the AIM status icon next to the From: in any e-mail you receive and you can IM the person, look up their contact info, and more.
• AIM enhancements for Plaxo Online. We’ve also added several AIM-friendly features to our online address book. First off, you can now sign in using your AIM Screen Name, as well as any of your e-mail addresses. Of course, you first have to add your Screen Name to your Plaxo cards (for Triton users, this should happen automatically).
• AIM Mail and AOL Mail. AIM Mail is the new free e-mail service available to all AIM users. When you link you Plaxo account to Triton you Plaxo address book is synced with your AIM Mail or AOL Mail address book. If you use Plaxo with Outlook, Outlook Express, or Thunderbird changes you make in those address books and synced with your AIM mail or AOL mail address book; one Universal Address Book!

We hope everyone will find the Plaxo integration in the new AIM to be useful and fun. As you'll see, Triton greatly expands the number of ways you can stay in contact with your friends and colleagues (im, email, voice, video, etc.) and Plaxo provides you with the contact info you need to take advantage of these new features.

As usual, send us feedback and stay tuned for more to come!

Thanks,
The Plaxo Team

You've been saving time all year by using Plaxo, so now, with the holidays approaching, why not spend some of that savings playing our new game.

For those of you who aren't using Plaxo yet, maybe this new feature will be the tipping point...

Enjoy! The Plaxo Team

Recall my earlier post about receiving an IM from Peter L. When AIM first popped up, I didn't initially recognize Peter as a known contact so I was understandably wary of responding back. Peter was able to IM me because he detected my AIM presence through Plaxo. He could see my AIM presence through Plaxo based on my AIM privacy settings which allowed him to look up my AIM Screen Name based on my email address.

It occurs to me that as AIM presence becomes more prevalent, I suspect others may find themselves in a similar situation. I started to wonder if there was a proper etiquette when communicating with someone through IM, in particular with someone who may not recognize you as a known contact.

We face a similar problem with Plaxo, so we've published our Plaxo Etiquette guide that all members are encouraged to follow. I thought for sure there must exist some type of etiquette for IM. To my surprise, I wasn't able to find any specific etiquette guidelines available on any of the major IM services (AOL, MSN, YIM) (actually, Microsoft did have an Instant Messaging Etiquette Guide that had some very good suggestions, but I felt this was slightly different than what I was looking for). I was able Google a number of helpful articles on IM etiquette, but here are a few of my own IM Etiquette suggestions:

- Don't use IM for initial introductions. Try to establish some type of relationship prior to using IM.
- Introduce yourself, especially if you are contacting someone unexpectedly. Make sure they know who you are and how you know each other.
- Be brief and on topic.
- Ask if it's OK to "talk" before jumping into the conversation.
- Use, don't abuse. Respect your contact's privacy. Just because you can see their AIM presence, doesn't mean you should use it.

In my case, I was fortunate because Peter did follow proper IM etiquette. He reminded me how we know each other, and we were able to quickly address his questions.

'til next time.

Stacy Martin
Plaxo Privacy Officer
privacy @t plaxo.com

I love reading about people who have discovered Plaxo's Backup/Restore feature. Here are a few that I recently came across:

In our continuing series on the new Plaxo Alerts. In the previous article, I talked about how the alert color helps to identify the type of alert you have received.

We tried to design the Plaxo Alerts to be aesthetically appealing and crisp, while presenting the important details.

The new alerts also show a Member Status box located in the upper right corner of each alert. Here you can review your current Plaxo Membership level (are you a VIP Member?), as well as see how long you've been a Plaxo member (e.g. Member Since: 01/01/2001).

The Member Status box also contains a "Learn more about Plaxo Alerts" link. Many members wanted to know more about the various sections in their Plaxo Alerts. The "Learn more" link gives you quick access to a Plaxo help page that provides greater explanation of each type of alert.

In our continuing series on the new Plaxo Alerts:

One of the improvements we've made to alerts is to visually separate them into 3 categories. This should help you recognize and handle alerts more quickly.

Green - "New Connection Alerts" - A contact in your address book has granted you permision to connect to their Plaxo card. The connected entry in your address book will be automatically updated each time the other Plaxo member changes their Plaxo card information. The "Green" alert also allows you to easily send and share your own Plaxo card information with the other Plaxo member.

Blue - "New Contact Info Alerts" - An entry in your address book has been updated. This occurs when someone responds to an Update Request you've sent, or when a connected Plaxo member in your address book updates their own Plaxo card information. The "Blue" alert will show you what information was changed.

Orange - "System Alerts/Important Messages" - Plaxo was unable to process a set of your instructions due to a problem. For example, an Update Request may have bounced or been throttled, or we may have failed to validate one of your email addresses. The "Orange" alert provide you the details of the problem and steps you can take to fix it.

We'll continue to tweak and improve the alerts over time, but if you have any questions, comments or feedback, please let us know.

Some of you may have noticed our new Plaxo Alerts recently rolled out.

Based on member feedback, we've redesigned the alerts to make them more informative and useful, helping to enhance your usage of Plaxo. We'll post some upcoming blog articles that discuss the new layout and features of the new alerts, and we'll continue to tweak and improve them over time.

But unfortunately, with the rollout of the new alerts, we also discovered a minor problem. Normally, a member receives an alert notification anytime an entry in their address book is updated through Plaxo. A bug in the new alerts caused a small percentage of Plaxo members to receive some alerts where no contact information had actually changed. No address book data was corrupted, but the alerts may have been confusing. We've fixed the problem, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Should you have any questions, concerns, or feedback, please let us know by contacting our Support Department.

I had previously corresponded with Peter only through email on some privacy questions he had on Plaxo. He wanted to thank me for my previous response (and of course, ask another question :-).

Peter was able to contact me through IM by noting my AIM presense in Plaxo Online. What was interesting though (at least to Peter), he was able to detect my AIM presense, even though he did not know my AIM Screen Name.

But how is this possible??? Was this a breach of my privacy or security?

Of course, the answer is No - my information is safe and secure as always. But then how was Peter able to contact me through my AIM Screen Name that he did not know? The answer lies in how I have set for my Privacy Settings for my AIM account and how AIM presense works.

My AIM Account Settings

When I registered for AIM, I validated my email address to my AIM account. I also configured my AIM Privacy settings to allow others to look up my AIM Screen Name based on my email address. Basically, I am allowing others to type in my email address and be returned my AIM Screen Name.

Because Peter knows my email address, Plaxo was able to utilize AOL's API, and based on my AIM Privacy Settings, look up my AIM Screen Name associated with my validated email address. Plaxo then shows my AIM presense next to my email address in Peter's address book. I can always change my AIM privacy settings to disable this look up if I do not wish others to see my AIM presense.

Fortunately, I understand what's going on here. But I suspect that as AIM presense becomes more widely available to Plaxo members, there may be confusion by some members on this new feature. Both our Support and Privacy teams are ready to answer any questions on the matter. But hopefully, there won't be too much confusion, and members will be very excited by this new way to stay connected.

Peter was able to use AIM presense to easily connect with me again, and effectively communicate with me quickly and easily.

'till next time.

Stacy Martin
Plaxo Privacy Officer
privacy @t plaxo.com

A member asked me today, "What happens when I change my Plaxo card information?".

I get this question from time to time, and each time I hear it, it makes me realize it's not always clear to people exactly how Plaxo works and how we solve the problem of staying in touch. After all, when it comes to staying in touch, there are really two sides to the problem.

On one side, you want to stay in touch with people you know by being updated each time they change their information. Preferably, this updating occurs automatically, so you don't have to bother with manually updating entries in your own address book when your contacts change their information.

On the other side, you want to update people who know you each time YOU change own information. Presumably, you'd want to update these people automatically whenever your information changes so as to NOT require manually informing and updating these people.

The two sides work hand-in-hand, and in the case of Plaxo, are highly dependent upon your Plaxo card Privacy settings. Your address book gets updated automatically when another member changes their information because that other member has allowed you to be automatically updated. Plaxo can only update entries in your address book if that respective contact (who is also a Plaxo member) grants you access to their updated Plaxo card information. We refer to this as "Card Sharing".

I find that people generally understand that Plaxo helps solve the first part of staying in touch. People often say to me, "It's great - Plaxo helps me to keep entries in my address book updated automatically!!!". But perhaps it's less evident that Plaxo also keeps others updated automatically when you change your own information. This takes us back to the original question, "What happens when I change my Plaxo card information?".

When you update your Plaxo card information, those other Plaxo members that you have permissioned to view your Plaxo card will be automatically updated with your new information. Before Plaxo will automatically update another member:

• The person must be a Plaxo member,


• They must have permission to your Plaxo card(s) based on your Privacy settings,


• and they must know you (ie: have you in their address book)

The final thing to understand is how your Privacy settings affect who will be automatically updated.

• If your Privacy Setting is set to "Members", you will automatically update any other Plaxo members who know you (ie: have you in their own Plaxo address book). The Plaxo member being updated does not need to be in your own address book
  
• If your Privacy Setting is set to "Contacts", you will automatically update other Plaxo members who know you (ie: also have you in their own Plaxo address book) if the member is ALSO in your own Plaxo address book.
  
• If your Privacy Setting is set to "Private", you will only automatically update those Plaxo members who you have previously sent your Plaxo card to directly (ie: you sent them an update request message).
  

Note: a greater explanation of Plaxo Privacy settings is available here:

Hopefully this sheds greater light on how Plaxo works and how we help solve the problem of staying in touch. If you have any further questions, please let me know.

'till next time,

Stacy Martin
Plaxo Privacy Officer
privacy @t plaxo.com

One of the most important aspects of Plaxo is how members share their own Plaxo card information with other Plaxo members. By sharing their Plaxo cards, Plaxo members are able to automatically update other Plaxo members each time they change their information. Plaxo provides a very robust and flexible permissioning scheme which allows the Plaxo member to determine how and with whom they wish to share their information.

One way members share their information is by explicitly sending a contact their information as part of a Plaxo Update Request message. For example: when Alice sends Bob an Update Request message and includes her Plaxo Business Card, she has permissioned Bob to view and access her Plaxo Business Card. Should Alice change her Plaxo Business Card information in the future, Bob will be automatically updated (assuming Bob is also a Plaxo member, and maintains an entry for Alice in his own Plaxo managed address book).

The other way Plaxo members share their information is through the Privacy Options of their Plaxo cards (configured at installation time or by editing your Plaxo cards). Plaxo has always supported two Privacy options: Private and Members. We recently introduced a 3rd Privacy option: Contacts.

Here's a brief explanation of each:

Option 1: Members (formerly called Public)

Any Plaxo member who has your e-mail address or screen name in their address book will be able to access your Members permissioned card.

Option 2: Contacts

Only other Plaxo members in your own address book will be able to access your Contacts card.

Option 3: Private

By default, no one will be able to access your Private card except for those people you explicitly send your cards to or individually permission.

Each Plaxo member has two Plaxo cards - a Plaxo Business Card and Plaxo Personal Card. By default, the Privacy Option is Members for the Plaxo Business Card, and Private for the Plaxo Personal Card.

Many members prefer the Members privacy option for at least one of their Plaxo cards due to its ability to automatically update other Plaxo members who already know them. If these friends, family, or associates already maintain the member's email address within their own Plaxo-managed address book, Plaxo will automatically update these members. The member does not need to manually send these other Plaxo members his Plaxo card information.

For example:

Alice permissions her Plaxo Business Card for Members. Carl has Alice in his Plaxo address book and gets automatically updated each time Alice changes her Plaxo Business Card. Alice does not need to have Carl in her own address book, nor does she need to send Carl a message when she changes her business information.

Other members prefer to maintain complete control over their Plaxo card information by marking both Plaxo cards as Private. Under this configuration, no automated updating occurs until the Plaxo member establishes a connection with another Plaxo member by explicitly sending his Plaxo card to the other Plaxo member in an Update Request. Once a connection has been established, Plaxo automatically updates the other Plaxo member anytime the member's Private Plaxo card information changes.

For example:

Alice permissions her Plaxo Personal Card as Private. Alice sends her Plaxo Personal Card to Dan. Dan's Plaxo Address Book continues to be updated automatically each time Alice changes her Personal Card. Alice does NOT send her Personal Card to Carl, so Carl is not updated automatically when she changes her Personal Card.

The Contacts privacy option offers a nice middle ground between the Members and Private privacy options. This option allows the member to control which other Plaxo members they share their information with to the contacts they maintain within their own address book. If any of these contacts are also Plaxo members, Plaxo will automatically update the entry they maintain for the member.

For example:

Alice permissions her Plaxo Personal Card as Contacts. Edward is in Alice's address book and also a Plaxo member. Plaxo automatically updates the entry for Alice in Edward's address book each time Alice changes her Personal Card information.

Greg is also in Alice's address book and a Plaxo member, but does not have Alice in his own address book. Though he has permission to Alice's Personal Card, there is nothing for Plaxo to automatically update.

The Contacts privacy option is currently only configurable through Plaxo Online. It will also be available through the Plaxo Toolbar for Outlook and Outlook Express with an upcoming client release, but for people who wish to take advantage of this new Privacy Option today, they can do so by editing their cards through Plaxo Online.

Till next time.

Stacy Martin
Plaxo Privacy Officer
privacy @t plaxo.com

Has anyone checked out the new AIM presence that is available through Plaxo Online!!! AIM presence allows you to quickly determine your contact's current AIM status.

Using the email address of the contact maintained within your Plaxo Address Book, you can quickly see if your buddy is online, idle, mobile, etc... If you also have AIM installed, you can easily connect with them by clicking on the presence icon and sending them a quick instant message.

This was one of many new features announced as part of Plaxo's integration with the Universal Address Book for AIM and AOL users. AIM presence will soon be rolled into the Plaxo toolbar for Outlook and Outlook Express, but this feature is available now through Plaxo Online.

The presence icon honors the AIM Privacy settings of your AIM buddy. If your buddy allow others to look up their online AIM status, you'll be able to see it through Plaxo Online. If not, no status information is displayed.

It's safe, secure, and pretty cool.

To see if any of your contacts are online, log into your Plaxo Online account, go to Contacts, and click on the Names view (https://www.plaxo.com/contact_list?view=0).

'till next time.

Stacy Martin
Plaxo Privacy Officer
privacy @t plaxo.com

CORRECTION (2005-09-13 18:14:56): Engineering informs me that AIM presence shows up on the other Contacts views - not just the Names view. Even better!!!

From the desk of the Privacy Officer...

Much has been written and discussed regarding Plaxo Update Request messages, the messages that Plaxo members chose to send to selected contacts within their address book. Update Request messages serve to update the recipient with a member's latest contact information and to optionally request the recipient update their information with the member. Update Request messages continue to be one of the most fundamental methods Plaxo members use to stay in touch with contacts who are not Plaxo members. But Update Request messages have not been without their own controversy, often as a result of improper usage by Plaxo members.

Whenever a new technology is introduced, there always seems to be a "breaking-in" period during which people start to establish what is proper usage behavior. After all, remember when it was common to hear a handful of cell phones going off during a movie or play? Or in responding to e-mail, some people ALWAYS SEEMED TO USE CAPS?

Thankfully over time, it became apparent to most people what is the conventional norm and a proper etiquette has been established. Sure you still hear the occasional cell phone ringing in the theater, and my Uncle Ted still hasn't figured out how to turn off his CAPS LOCK key, but fortunately these occurrences are more the exception than the rule. It's clear that as users adopt a proper etiquette, the technology becomes more useful and accepted by everyone.

And I believe these same rules apply to Plaxo. So to help people understand the proper netiquette when using Plaxo, we've published our own set of Plaxo manners. Plaxo Etiquette includes 5 common sense tips that should help Plaxo members to be better net-citizens and make Plaxo more useful and beneficial to everyone.

• Keep it to the facts.


• Know who you want to know.


• Use the personal touch.


• Tell them who you are.


• Respect others� privacy.

The complete Plaxo Etiquette is published under the Security and Privacy section of our web site. I invite everyone