My address books are pwning me!

May 28, 2008 12:10 PM

How can I keep track of all my people across several computers?

I'm flailing around unproductively trying to keep track of all my people and their ever-changing contact info.

My current system is like this:

I use a Dell/Outlook/BlackBerry Enterprise Server setup at work and a Mac/OS X/Address Book setup at home. I also have a Gmail account and an LG VX9800 cell phone that stores phone numbers.

Right now I have a personal "master list" in Mac Address Book, a work "master list" in Outlook, a more robust e-mail list in Gmail (given that it automatically saves any e-mail that you send to), and a list of phone numbers saved in my phone. I find myself updating the same information in two or three places every time something changes.

I wouldn't mind having all work and personal contacts in one place, but I must continue to have both the BB for work and the separate, personal cell phone. I can't really afford a new personal cell phone right now, but if something absolutely fabulously useful and efficient were to exist, I would find a way to buy it.

My fantasy contact management system is:

* web-based, so it is accessible from any computer/platform. (Running on my own server space is OK but not necessary.)

* able to receive imports from my datasets that currently exist.

* able to sync with my handheld devices OR export easily into something that does. (e.g. export into Outlook and then I will sync the BB there.)

* not free -- I don't mind paying if it's less likely to disappear on me or ignore customer service.

* not so expensive that I can't afford it. I want a consumer-level product, not a business-level product.

* not going to spam all my contacts. (I'm pointing at you, Plaxo!)

* back-up-able, so the web-based app doesn't eat all my data and leave me contact-less.

The pessimist in me doubts that what I want exists, but maybe someone will surprise me with some software that I don't know about. Even if I can't reach perfection, can anyone suggest incremental improvements?

Extra Credit Question: As an interim step, I might at least try to get all my Mac Address Book data into Gmail. I can't imagine that Gmail's going to disappear on me. Can I import data into Gmail in bulk, or would it all have to be typed in?

posted by mccxxiii to computers & internet (7 comments total)

maybe highrise? Looks promising. I haven't tried it yet but am looking at backpack and writeboard for my company right now.
posted by doorsfan at 12:30 PM on May 28, 2008

you can import data into gmail if you go into contacts and you have exported the data into a CSV. It didn't seem to have all the custom data fields (or it didn't recognize them) for me. so i lost some address detail in the conversion, and it didn't give me an option to check it out further.

I did it from outlook, where my main contacts reside.
posted by Amby72 at 12:31 PM on May 28, 2008

Any interest in a Palm OS phone/handheld? The Palm Desktop that your device would sync with comes in both Windows and Mac flavors. Importing from Outlook and Address Book should be possible but possibly frustrating; but you'd do that only once and use the Palm interface from then on.

It was the way I had a unified, cross-platform system on my work XP, home Mac, and handheld. (Two out of the three tends to be easily accomplished; it's getting the third in that's tricky). Of course, if you hate the Palm interface or love your current phone setup you won't use it. But I enjoyed having a smaller, "dumber" phone that was just a phone and a Palm TX that was the address book/calendar/planner/mobile wifi/ipod + video/write using a little accessory keyboard and not have to travel with a laptop type device. YMMV.
posted by bartleby at 4:17 PM on May 28, 2008

Apple added gmail contacts syncing today to Address Book.app with the 10.5.3 update. Unfortunately for you, the syncing only works for iPhone users.
posted by birdherder at 4:26 PM on May 28, 2008

Check out www.plaxo.com
posted by diode at 7:21 PM on May 28, 2008

seconding the Plaxo recommendation. I use it to sync Outlook, Google Calendar, LinkedIn, Yahoo, AOL, my phone, Thunderbird, etc. Even if Plaxo can't get to it directly, it can usually sync with something that can sync via another app with what you want.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:35 PM on May 28, 2008

ScheduleWorld.com can tie them all together for you, including the GMail, for free.
posted by notashroom at 9:44 AM on May 29, 2008