Plaxo 3.0

I have been a user (and fan) of Plaxo for a long time.  For those not familiar with Plaxo, it provides a contact synchronization service between Outlook, LinkedIN, Gmail, Yahoo, mobile phones and more.  Recently, they launched version 3.0 of their product and with it a new strategy of being what I call a giant "European plug adaptor" for personal information.  For anyone who has traveled Europe, you know the hassle of dealing with all the different standards of plugs.  I have (had) the same problem with all of my personal information and Plaxo has elegantly solved that problem.  For a few dollars per month, they provide a very valuable service.

I mentioned in a previous post how Plaxo works great synchronizing between Outlook and LinkedIN.  Not only does it save me time otherwise spent updating, it delivers real value by automatically finding and updating information that I would otherwise not know.  Looking at their product strategy, I'm sure it won't be long before Plaxo offers synchronization with Facebook and other social networks where users have personal information. 

With 15 million users and growing, Plaxo is well positioned to become the "social network aggregator" everyone has been buzzing about lately.  There is a hint of this with the introduction of the new "Pulse" feature which filters, blogs, Amazon anf Flickr for information about people in your contact list.  A personalized filter of the web...very cool!  I have discovered blogs by people I know using this feature and it allows me to keep abreast of what my network is interested in. 

Keep an eye on Plaxo, I think we'll see great things from them.