Disqus - Latest Comments for therealmccrea

Re: Bye bye, Plaxo!

therealmccrea — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:12:24 -0000

I head up marketing at Plaxo and appreciate your feedback. One clarification: we offer export, for sure. Always have. Always will. In fact, we also have a "Portable Contacts" endpoint, which means other services can offer Plaxo address book import. We definitely do not want to build a silo!

Re: Real-time systems hurting long-term knowledge?

therealmccrea — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:08:28 -0000

Great post, Robert! I've been meaning to write one related to this topic. Let's see if I can summon the energy and clarity this week. :)

Re: Status Update: Plaxo and Facebook are now in an “Open Relationship”

therealmccrea — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:45:32 -0000

Andrew,

Thanks for crystalizing this. Yes, we would *love* to do something similar with LinkedIn. We did Facebook first, because we had access to APIs that would allow us to do a great integration. If we had similar access with LinkedIn, we would happily honor LinkedIn connections as business connections on Plaxo (and vice versa), and enable two-way flows of content.

If folks would like to see that, please express your desire to the team at LinkedIn. Thanks!

Re: Adding Google Friend Connect is an example of how hard it is to join the 2010 web

therealmccrea — Sat, 16 May 2009 17:49:42 -0000

I like the new layout and features. And Google Friend Connect worked very smoothly.

Re: Status Update: Plaxo and Facebook are now in an “Open Relationship”

therealmccrea — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:19:06 -0000

Olly, I'm not aware of a problem there. Sounds like you've seen it more than once. If you email me, we can try to troubleshoot. john@plaxo.com

Re: Status Update: Plaxo and Facebook are now in an “Open Relationship”

therealmccrea — Tue, 05 May 2009 01:11:36 -0000

Thanks for the thoughtful and detailed feedback. Feel free to follow up with me at john@plaxo.com.

Re: Status Update: Plaxo and Facebook are now in an “Open Relationship”

therealmccrea — Tue, 05 May 2009 01:00:47 -0000

Debra, you made my night. You have the absolutely correct understanding of what we're trying to do. With the Facebook integration, nothing changes at that level. Facebook friends can become friends on Plaxo, and content shared on Facebook with friends can be shared automatically with friends on Plaxo. That said, check out the various settings available for those connecting their Facebook and Plaxo accounts. It's all about control.

Re: Status Update: Plaxo and Facebook are now in an “Open Relationship”

therealmccrea — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:56:56 -0000

We do not (yet) have a Blackberry app.

Re: Status Update: Plaxo and Facebook are now in an “Open Relationship”

therealmccrea — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:56:20 -0000

Hmm. That's an interesting take on what's going on. Of course, each member gets to make his or her own decision. Sounds like you are not bought into the idea that Plaxo can help you stay connected to all the people you care about, across all the tools you and they use.

To clarify, you do not have to hook up Facebook if you do not want to (or if you do not use it.)

Re: Status Update: Plaxo and Facebook are now in an “Open Relationship”

therealmccrea — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:03:32 -0000

Sorry to hear that. Email me, john@plaxo.com, and let's see if we can help.

Re: Status Update: Plaxo and Facebook are now in an “Open Relationship”

therealmccrea — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:14:50 -0000

As to the LinkedIn question, we would very much like to restore that functionality. To do that, we will need LinkedIn to open access to their API to us. If they were to hear from from you and others that you desire interoperability between Plaxo and LinkedIn, that might help move that along.

As to the question of "being oriented toward professionals," that is in fact the case. Our demographic is very similar to LinkedI, and we want to build a feature set that delights busy professionals. That said, a recent survey of our active users revealed that 60% of them also use Facebook -- and wanted us to make the two services work well together (while preserving fine-grained control of what they share with whom).

Re: Status Update: Plaxo and Facebook are now in an “Open Relationship”

therealmccrea — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:26:15 -0000

Stephen,

No this will not modify your settings on Facebook. Good question.

John

Re: Status Update: Plaxo and Facebook are now in an “Open Relationship”

therealmccrea — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:24:35 -0000

Great question. The answer is yes, you have all sorts of controls. Given your preferences, you may wish to opt out of having your status sync from Facebook to Plaxo, but the other default preferences are probably fine for you.

Re: Status Update: Plaxo and Facebook are now in an “Open Relationship”

therealmccrea — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:46:31 -0000

Thanks for all the passionate feedback. A few thoughts:

We've always been focused on helping you stay connected with the people you know and care about across all the tools and services you (or they) use. That's gotten more complicated in an era when so many different services have emerged where people are sharing information about themselve and updating their contact info. We are trying to evolve with the times, while maintaining a focus on the core vision.

For those who thought we were only about "business," that is too narrow a view. A great address book helps you communicate with all the people you know and care about, including family, friends, and business contacts.

For those who think we've shifted too far in our focus on social networking, please be patient. As the web goes social and the Social Web goes open, we've got ever more opportunities to expand the vision for what an address book that connects with the various tools and services of the open Social Web can do for you.

Re: Status Update: Plaxo and Facebook are now in an “Open Relationship”

therealmccrea — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:37:35 -0000

Sorry you are not happy with our product evolution. I think if you watch how it continues over the next year, you will be able to see yesterday's announcement in a different light. If you really like us syncing your data across multiple platforms, you will probably be glad to see us achieve deeper integrations with the various major social/business networks out there.

John

Re: Status Update: Plaxo and Facebook are now in an “Open Relationship”

therealmccrea — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:33:45 -0000

Nicole,

Sorry you're not happy with the evolution. Plaxo has always been about helping people stay connected with the people they care about across all the tools and services they use. Evolving with the changing landscape of tools and services is of vital importance in serving that mission.

Getting interoperability with Facebook is a major step forward for us, and it will open the door for more to come.

Re: “A stronger Pulse”; introducing Comments-in-the-Stream and a first-class integration with TripIt

therealmccrea — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:21:54 -0000

Okay, folks. The new features should be rolled out to all users now.

Re: “A stronger Pulse”; introducing Comments-in-the-Stream and a first-class integration with TripIt

therealmccrea — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:21:35 -0000

You should be able to see it now.

Re: “A stronger Pulse”; introducing Comments-in-the-Stream and a first-class integration with TripIt

therealmccrea — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:09:53 -0000

I should have mentioned that this is rolling out over the course of this afternoon and evening. If you're not seeing it yet, check back later. Thanks!

Re: Rocky Mountain News will shut Friday

therealmccrea — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:25:15 -0000

Yep. Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee, newspapers.

Re: Party like it’s 1993

therealmccrea — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 09:49:04 -0000

One addition piece of color: Facebook sees this too, and is going open. In fact, the company's moves in that direction keep getting bigger and bolder. So, anyone who bases their business strategy in 2009 on an assumption that Facebook is not going going even more open will be making a big mistake.

Re: Introducing Two-Click Signup, an initiative to improve the user experience of OpenID; first test now live with Google

therealmccrea — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:41:16 -0000

We do have Gmail import today, but not yet with the Oauth. We'll roll that out soon as out this experiment succeeds.

Re: Introducing Two-Click Signup, an initiative to improve the user experience of OpenID; first test now live with Google

therealmccrea — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:42:12 -0000

Agreed!

Re: Introducing Two-Click Signup, an initiative to improve the user experience of OpenID; first test now live with Google

therealmccrea — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:41:42 -0000

Absolutely. This is not about any particular pair-wise interop, but about all interops!

Re: Introducing Two-Click Signup, an initiative to improve the user experience of OpenID; first test now live with Google

therealmccrea — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:08:08 -0000

Oops. The photos are now public. Sorry about that!