You know when you've been Plaxoed

If you're using the Plaxo address update technology, please don't make my mistake.

If you don't know it, Plaxo is a system that allows people to connect their email address books: if my contact details change then your address book noticed and updates it. It's quite cool. For me there's a little niggle: Plaxo works best with Outlook, an email program that we do not use at the moment. However it is still a useful tool.

It's been especially useful because we recently moved office, added a post office box, added some overseas dial-in numbers and so on. However, what I did not realise is that if you are an Outlook user, each of these changes not only happens to your address book: it also pops up as special alert in your inbox. This means that, for example, a former MBA classmate who I have not seen for a couple of years pointed out she has had three or four emails from me this month as each of these changes was registered -- quite without me realising it.

At best that just seems odd, irritating and - of course - marks me out a someone who doesn't know how Plaxo works. At worst, it seems like some bizarre form of unethical personal marketing. I'll now be saving up my changes for make amendments once or twice a year, rather than updating as the changes happen.

Don't let it happen to you!