Getting that Damn Address Book in Sync
This will likely be an ongoing problem I have to say but I really hope somebody will start building something that works. The even bigger problem is that the real problem (understand by now that it’s a problem? ;)) that likely the players that hold (part of) my address book will need to support any move for a sync.
But let’s move one step back. I tried a beta service called Soocial and didn’t back up my address book. Stupid me, agreed, happens a lot of times recently because I have my head full with other stuff and I expect things to work (it’s taken care of now). It synced with my local address book (close to a 1000 contacts), then with GMail (up to 1600) and suddenly it was going up, doubling contacts left and right and I was up to close to 3000. All that happened in the background. The service provides backup possibilities meaning it should have had a backup from my first sync but that backup was empty. And it got worse and worse and suddenly all was gone. Thankfully I have a sync with GMail and long ago decided to try to bring a large part of my contacts into Xing.
So one export from GMail, fill up with Xing data, and I am moving in the right direction again. I now set up an account with Plaxo, after I made them delete my last login. It is amazing to see what kind of diverse group of people are in Plaxo I have to say and I am now using it as a focussed system to sync address book data. I would love it if they would hook up with Xing.
Strangely enough I did not find any way to export my previous address book uploads to LinkedIn, which would also have been a wonderful way to get back that data.
I really would like somebody to take care of all of this. There are different backup solutions, and I might try Soocial again at a later date, who are now probably the closest of the bunch I know to solve the problem. Plaxo for example only has one way Sync into GMail.
What I would like is something that really syncs what I have. I mean lots of people have a photo inside Facebook, Xing, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter or Noserub or whatever so why do I need to add them to my address book damn it! So this would be another interesting project for all of you out there. A real sync of my personal connections. Go cracking. Thank you. :) Suggestions of course always welcome.