Wow, so many of you may have tried Plaxo, back in the day (it was a Wednesday, about 3 or 4 years ago I think). Well, they’re back, and surprisingly, they’re great!

I’ve been wrestling with organizing and consolidating my contacts for years, I’ve got Hotmail, GMail, Yahoo! Mail, and more, plus my old Palm Pilot data too. Since my Pilot died, ugh, (still waiting for you Gandalf (or iPhone)) I haven’t been happy at all with my contacts and scheduling, and as my phone isn’t particularly web savvy well, let’s just say I’ve been vexed with integrating everything. It seems those worries are coming to an end.

Yeeehaww!!

Testing: In no time at all I had brought my Palm data into my Yahoo! account (just click on the sync help button in Yahoo! Mail and it brought all my Palm Vcard data in (it’s not too hard, select all your contacts then export vcard)). Then in Plaxo, I selected, Yahoo! Mail, then GMail, then Hotmail.

Voila!! All my woes, gone!!! Check the Plaxo video!

I was actually a little shocked at how well it worked. I had well over 1400 contacts, and it all went through in nearly no time at all. There are a bundle of other options available with Plaxo too. Their Calendar portion looks smooth and works like all the others you are used to. I’m limited as to getting my calendar data in, since Scrybe (you may remember I joined the beta a while back when my Palm died, it has worked well, but not being able to access it in real time (Palm Pilot/smartphone style, it’s been really frustrating after being spoiled like that for so long). Once Scrybe hits phase 3 in their beta they will be able to export and I’ll be able to Plaxo all my actions for the coming year (phew!)

There’s also provisions for a lot of Web 2.0ish stuff in Plaxo as well. There is basically a feed reader keyed to your contacts, so you can track what is going on with people you know, if you’re into that. I myself, don’t feel that I know enough people that are out there posting, taking pictures and generally updating their sites enough, nor, quite frankly, am I bothered to. Since I switched over to Google Reader, I’ve been pretty much on there for all my info, and whenever I really need to go out and get more info, I read through my friend’s sites.

The one or two drawbacks that are there, are my regular complaints, they don’t integrate the other features I really enjoy. I want to bring my del.icio.us tags in,, and though I’m still resistant to doing it (like I need my head plugged in more) Twitter. The one drawback that really torques me out is the note-taking. They simply refer to them as notes, with tagging, and linking to both Plaxo groups (think Microsoft OneNote style, time stamping, and link and image capture it could really be the end all be all… (I hope you guys are listening!) ) Also, more finite selections for tasks. I can only assume more task data will be coming, as there is a percentage shown, yet there is only a checkbox to indicate completeness.

I know that’s asking a lot, but they’ve done so much so well, it’s hard to believe it won’t be there soon.

Seriously folks, this is a solution that’s free (I’m really staring at upgrading to their premium account to link my linked in account too, but for now, it’s an expense I won’t be incurring).

Go to Plaxo Here’s the link to the video demo.