One Site To Rule Them All

All right, I'll admit it: I'm confused. In this last week, I have watch the "new media" bubble uncontrollably about two things:

- Sites that can monitor you and your friends' activities on all of the "cool" sites, like Flickr, Twitter, etc., and publish them in a feed.
- Google Calendar sync with Outlook.

In all of the mentions, barely a word was spoken about Plaxo. Why? Plaxo has been doing both of these things for quite some time, and has an important advantage over Netvibes, Spokeo, etc.: it already integrates with your address book, and gives users ancillary benefits of keeping their address books up to date.

Maybe it's the desperate air of "for sale" that was the reason; maybe it's Plaxo's old "bac'n" problem, but whatever it is, it's unreal. Why would you want to set up all of these additional sites, then convince your contacts to join them, then convince them to sync their online social life, when you can offer them one membership, with Google Calendar sync, and so much more?

Man, I hope whomever pumped the $ into Plaxo can see the goldmine they have.

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