Plaxo has announced the launch of Plaxo 3.0, a major new release of its Smart Address Book service, that has 15 million users worldwide. Plaxo says that Version 3.0 is the first online address book and calendar to synchronise between Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, AOL, Mac OSX, Thunderbird, and mobile phones. The company claims the new version makes simple what had until now been impossible: bridging between multiple disparate tools and services with automated, multi-way synchronisation without cables, cradles, or complicated software set-up. Plaxo 3.0 is also now available for free in seven languages, including French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish. The application is currently in beta and available to download here.
After a year of hard work re-tooling our service, this is much more than just another product release; were really introducing an all-new Plaxo to the world expanding our addressable market, says Todd Masonis, Founder and VP of Products. Plaxo 3.0 is the platform upon which we can build out our sync and share vision, giving people access to all their data wherever they need it, and enabling ever richer ways to stay connected with the people who matter in their lives.
Plaxo 3.0 gives people universal access to all of their contacts and calendars at work, at home, or on the road. It offers a wide range of access options, including a new web interface; native client software for Windows and Mac OSX; and several mobile options, including a new WAP 2.0 version for mobile browsers, available at m.plaxo.com.
The new online interface to Plaxo is a rich AJAX web application, with multiple components, presented in a seamlessly integrated, interactive environment. Key features include:
A new Sync Dashboard for taking the complexity and effort out of setting up and monitoring multiple Sync Endpoints.
A dramatically expanded array of Sync Endpoints, including Google (starting with Calendar, with Gmail coming soon); Microsoft (Outlook, Outlook Express, Vista Mail, and Hotmail); Yahoo! (Mail and Calendar); Mac OSX Sync Services (for Address Book, iCal, iPhone, and more); AOL (AIM); Mozilla Thunderbird; LinkedIn (available as part of Plaxo Premium); and mobile phones.
A smarter address book, with Find-as-You-Type Search, One-Click Directions (via mashup with Yahoo!), and Click-to-Call (via mashup with Jajah).
An innovative new calendar, built by the HipCal team (acquired in May 2006), with Upcoming View, Countdowns, Weather (via mashup with Weather Underground), Photos (via mashup with Flickr), and calendar sharing.
Plaxo 3.0 also includes Plaxo Pulse, an automated content-sharing system, which Plaxo says has all the power of RSS feeds, but none of the complexity. As people you know post content online, it shows up automatically in your Pulse tab, based on their sharing settings. Initial feeds include Flickr photos, blogposts, Amazon.com Wish Lists, and Plaxo contact information changes.