P2P Contact Info Service From Napster Co-Founder

scrm writes "Plaxo is an interesting new service from Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster. It's a P2P-based add-on to Outlook that confronts the old problem of keeping contact lists up-to-date. Mozilla mail support is on the cards, and yes, the company does 'take privacy very seriously'. Check the press here(1), here(2) and here(3). You can also access your contact list over the web."

Comments

Would you?

[Sir Haxalot]

The story says: the company does 'take privacy very seriously'
But could you take the company seriously? The person in charge of it cost film producers and music companies millions, possibly even billions of dollars. Would you do business with someone who caused theft on such a huge scale?

Interesting, but frightening...

[Justen]

Seems like an interesting use of technology, but it isn't new. (Exchange has had this, of course, for intra-Exchange users, for ages. America Online recently started testing a similar service for their members.)

It is unique in that it has the possibility of accomodating users across mail services, platforms, and other traditional barriers.

However, being the paranoid schizo that I am, I can't imagine I would ever subscribe to or accomodate such a service. Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but such a centralized system has an incredible ability to be abused by sources internal and external.

Nice idea. But so is RFID for every human. :)

justen

Good point...

[Anonymous Coward]

Outlook allows you to customise information stored against contacts. There is a binary field in there that you can happily use for storing images, text files and yup... MP3's.

Given that, there's no reason why you could write a simple application creating a directory of contact names for all your MP3's and attaching the relevant files. You could even add tag info using custom fields too.

Now whether this P2P system allows you to transfer custom fields remains to be seen - I'd wager a big no on that one. But someday someone is gonna figure out that the best way to share files is with people you know, which means people in your address book. Build a P2P system on that and you're sorted.

This isn't P2P

[Saeger]

Just like how Napster wasn't P2P, neither is this - it's Person <-> Central-Server <-> Person.

P2P usually implies a bit more distributed networking. Either completely distributed (and unworkable) like the original Gnutella, or mostly distributed with SuperNodes like Kazaa, eDonkey, and the new Gnutella. Napster was always a client->server metainfo server.

--

Add it to your spam filters

[cyberformer]

From the many identical emails I've been getting, Plaxo seems to be a program that goes though your contact list and then spams everyone you know with what appear to be personal messages from you but are really just ads asking you to download and run the program (and enter your personal information for the company to harvest).

If some kid had written this in his spare time, it would be called a virus. Because Plaxo is a company, it's called an innovative application. There are several other startups all doing the same thing (search on Google), and when they go bankrupt their privacy polices will mean nothing.

Fundamental flaw with plaxo

[bh001]

Has anyone gotten emails from people that use this service?

About a month ago, a note showed up in my inbox saying:

> Hi [my name], [plaxo user's name] wants to
> make sure that he has the correct address
> information for you. Please take a moment to
> fill out the following form.

It really pissed me off that a friend of mine would send me an automated message rather than a quick note.

To those who don't see the annoyance, imagine that someone you knew had their secretary call to ask you for the same information. Annoying, right?

I hope this service dies a quick death.

Re:Fundamental flaw with plaxo

[ChrisHanel]

Yeah, but you're forgetting if that person has 500 contacts, which would you rather he did: Write One automated message and have the program do everything for him, or have him write 500 "quick notes"? It's all about taking the hard work away from him and saving him time. Not to sound like a salesman or anything, i don't have plaxo and don't know much about it, just pointing out some obvious logic.

Thanks for the offer...

[windside]

But I'd rather hold on to my eternal soul for now, thanks.

I don't care how much time this saves how many people, it's a fundamentally bad idea that will only at to the overall dehumanization of the internet.

In the last few years, email has quite reasonably overtaken traditional mail as the dominant form of written communication. The consequences have been numerous, but tolerable up until this point. Programs of this nature are one thing in the business world, but when companies start to market this "service" to average users, it takes on entirely different connotations.

We have to draw a line in the sand: people shouldn't need to automate the process of staying in touch with their friends! By taking this extremely basic task out of their hands and putting it into those of some relatively anonymous information-harvesting corporation, we remove one of the mechanisms that nature uses to cull lesser humans from the face of the earth. In short, people who are unable to stay in touch with their friends without using this program should not be allowed to breed.

Let natural selection take its course! Keep the fluoride out of our water supply and keep Plaxo out of our internet!