Hi Deborah - Thanks for your even-handed comments regarding Plaxo. I hope you don't mind me adding to your comments with a few of my own.

First let me say that though Plaxo is used by millions of people each day, we realize no service is perfect for everyone and there is always room for improvement. We appreciate it when members like yourself share their thoughts on the Plaxo service, which helps us to continue to improve Plaxo!

I wanted to add a few other things to your list, based on what I've heard from many users. Things most users like:

- Automatic backup and quick restore capabilities. This feature alone has been a tremendous life-saver for many members who have experienced a system crash, lost laptop, or other catastrophic PC failure. Within seconds, they can quickly restore their critical contacts, calendar, tasks and notes information.

- Birthday Reminder Service. About 10% of all contacts respond to an Update Request with their birthday information. Members can use Plaxo to remind them of upcoming birthdays and to easily send the contact a friendly birthday greeting. This is an easy way to add a personal touch to any relationship.

- Self-updating address book. When two contacts are both Plaxo members, they may connect with each other, allowing the other member’s address book to be updated anytime the other updates their contact information. People don't have to manually send out messages, or manually update their own address books.

- Mobile (WAP) Access to Calendar and Phone information. Plaxo can be used to allow people on the go can stay connected to their Outlook address book and calendar information through WAP access to their synchronized Plaxo Online information. Plaxo can even send you a meeting reminder message 15 minutes before a meeting is to start so you never miss an important meeting.

And as you mentioned, there are still many other features of Plaxo that I've not mentioned.

As for the things that you don't like:

> Some people that I really respect despise Plaxo and respond
> to Plaxo update requests with vehement refusals.
>

Responding to an Update Request is certainly an optional activity of the person you sent the Update Request to. Given the daily news about spam, identity theft, viruses, etc... it's understandable that people may be cautious or reluctant. Many of the concerns I've heard revolve around Plaxo's usage of a member's address book information.

What I try to emphasize to people is that Plaxo does not use the information within a member's address book to send spam, maintain spam mailing lists, or share with any 3rd party. A member's information within Plaxo is just that - the Member's information. It is owned by the member and the member decides how they wish to use that information. Plaxo is just a service provider for the management and access of that information, similar to a member managing and access the same exact type of information within services such as Yahoo!, AOL, Hotmail, etc...

We follow some of the strictest, most consumer protective privacy practices in use by any Internet Service. The following matrix compares Plaxo's privacy practices with other well-known and reputable Internet services including Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, eBay, and Amazon: http://www.plaxo.com/privacy/matrix

Our privacy practices are summed up by our Plaxo Privacy Principles, which state:

- Your Information is your own and you decide who will have access to it.
- You maintain ownership rights to Your Information, even if there is a business transition or policy change.
- You may add, delete, or modify Your Information at any time.
- Plaxo will not update or modify Your Information without your permission.
- Plaxo will not sell, exchange, or otherwise share Your Information with third parties, unless required by law or in accordance with your instructions.
- Plaxo does not send spam, maintain spam mailing lists, or support the activities of spammers.

> I don't know - and perhaps nobody knows - how secure Plaxo
> data storage is.
>

We practice many of the same Internet-tested security safeguards in use by many banks and financial institutions. You can learn more about our security safeguards at:

http://www.plaxo.com/privacy/security_safeguards

But we also understand that the world of security is constantly changing so we must always be onguard for new and emerging threats in order to react quickly.

> The web-based version of Plaxo is a slow-running tool.
> Sometimes I find myself wondering whether it's worth the
> time to fire it up when all I need is an e-mail address.
>

Many factors can affect the performance of Plaxo Online. We have a number of metrics in place to monitor the performance of Plaxo Online to ensure we are providing a proper user experience. You should continue to improvements to the site over time, but if you ever have a technical problem, please contact our Support team at support @t plaxo.com

> The user interface is not terribly intuitive.
>

Personally, I've heard comments on this both sides. Some people love the interface, while others express similar comments to yours. I suspect the truth is somewhere in between, and we are reviewing the site for areas that can be improved.

Thanks for the opportunity to comment and thanks for being a Plaxo member. If we can be of any assistance, please let us know.

Stacy Martin
Plaxo Privacy Officer
privacy @t plaxo.com

That he commented on your blog makes me like the company better. Nice response.

I certainly agree with Marnie Webb! I respect Stacy Martin and Plaxo all the more for responding to my comments in detail, and for addressing the anxieties that many of our colleagues have expressed .

While it's nice that a Plaxo spokesperson responded, how many companies do you deal with who have an officer of the company scanning blogs for negative comments? I'm sure it's more common in the social software market than in the mainstream software market, but this (and a little Google searching) says a lot about the beleaguered history of Plaxo. But perhaps Stacy's attention to the blogosphere is particularly acute today, as it has just been announced that AOL will integrate Plaxo into the AOL Instant Messenger. This news has stirred up some old antagonism towards Plaxo from privacy advocates (and people who are just plain tired of receiving update requests.
My primary objection to adding my (already spammed to heck and back) email contact info to Deborah's Plaxo file is that I've got a large Roman nose, while Plaxo seems designed for people who lack noses altogether.