I (well, my wife and I) keep getting these email invitations from a family member:
Hi again, I noticed that I didn’t get a response from my last email to you. I’m using a new tool called Plaxo to update my address book. Your information will not be shared with anyone else. You do not need to download any software from Plaxo or register with Plaxo to send me your information. Please take a moment to review the information below from Plaxo and click the button to correct or confirm your contact information with Plaxo. If you want to update your address book too, get Plaxo at…
P.S. I’ve attached my current information in a vcard. If you get Plaxo too, we’ll stay in touch automatically.
The person who keeps sending these is a nice guy, but…
most of the emails from him are the latest jokes from the net (many not so “latest“) and chain e-mails. We would like to stay in touch, to keep up with what he is up to and how he is doing. If he were to start a blog somewhere we would look in on it weekly or get the feed from it. But that’s not really the point of this…
This Plaxo thing. What a naming disaster. Plaxo hmmm. What does that make me think of…
Get Plaxo – the all new mouth wash and tooth whitener that works while you sleep. Plaxo also enhances your breasts and enlarges your penis – ALL at the SAME TIME.
But WAIT!
Plaxo also cures baldness, cold-sores and dysfunctional relationships! Get your Plaxo today!Plaxo is not responsible for any of the hundreds of side-effects you will experience, including but not limited to baldness, violent spasms, erectile dysfuntion, heart failure and brain damage. In an inconclusive 83% of test cases Plaxo caused severe tooth decay, leading to complete emergency denture replacement.
Of course, Plaxo is not any of that, but if someone were to ask what I think of when I hear the word Plaxo, well there you go. Right up there with Viagra.
No, no, this is an online, contact management application for Outlook. Dont believe me? Google it.
I’m not providing a direct link because I view Plaxo as an evil little spam and spam harvester application.
3 Comments
Agreed!
I have a canned answer to Plaxo devotees who send me requests… http://www.robertnasir.com/misc/plaxo.htm
Great take on the “Plaxo” name, but Plaxo has never been proven to cause severe tooth decay.
Seriously, Plaxo offers a line of contact management products to help members manage, maintain, and update their address book, calendar, notes and task information. We currently have over 5M members who trust Plaxo to help securely update and manage their address book information.
One part of our service allows members to send an Update Request message to selected contacts within their own local address book in order to stay in touch with the contact. This message is similar to a “Here’s my new info. Can you update me?” message someone might send on their own when moving, changing jobs, etc… The advantage to using Plaxo is any response the member might receive is automatically updated into their address book through Plaxo.
There are many other advantages available to Plaxo members to help them better manage their information and keep it safe including secure anytime, anywhere Web access to member information, multi-system synchronization capabilities, Birthday Reminder service, Holiday card service, quick backup and restore capabilities of Address book and PIM information.
Our members can be assured that we follow very strict privacy practices summarized by our Plaxo Privacy Principles:
- 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.
Stacy Martin
Plaxo Privacy Officer
privacy @t plaxo.com
Thanks for dropping in Stacy!
Ok, so maybe I am coming down a bit hard on Plaxo. It appears you have tightened up your privacy policy since I first looked at y’all a couple of years ago.
Having said that, it doesn’t change my overall opinion of Plaxo. Intentionally or not, it is spam to me. The viral marketing bit in your application, which is I suppose needed for the automatic updated address books, really turns me off. It has since the first one I recieved some time ago when y’all first launched. This family member is just the latest in a list of “friends”, family and coworkers who have bombarded me every couple of months with Plaxo messages.
While at first I was most hesitant because of the privacy issues you had off the bat, I am adamantly resistant now because of the viral invite/update messages. Oh, well I guess that is what email filters are for, just a shame I can no longer allow all messages coming from matches in my address book to come through unflagged.
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