founder sean parker todd masonis and cameron ring headquarters sunnyvale california key people justin miller president & ceo website plaxo plaxo is an online address book that launched in 2002 . it has been a subsidiary of cable television company comcast since 2008 . at one point it offered a social networking service . contents 1 history 2 functionality 2.1 plaxo 3.0 2.2 charging for outlook synchronization service 2.3 personal assistant 2.4 mobile applications 3 references 4 external links history edit the company was founded by sean parker and two stanford university engineering students todd masonis and cameron ring . rikk carey joined plaxo at its inception and led engineering and products for six years as executive vice president . funded by venture capital including funds from sequoia capital 1 the service officially launched on november 12 2002 . 2 on july 7 2005 plaxo announced it had struck a deal with america online to integrate its contact management service with its aol and aol instant messenger products . 3 in january 2007 plaxo was criticized by technology journalist david coursey who was upset about receiving a number of requests from plaxo users to update their contact information similar to spam email and who wondered how the company was planning to make money from a free service that collects personal contact and network information . 4 however after changes at plaxo and discussions with the company s remaining co founders coursey reversed his stance . 5 plaxo also responded to these issues in a section of their website . 6 on may 7 2007 comcast announced that it had partnered with plaxo in the launch of its universal communications service smartzone . 7 on august 4 2007 plaxo announced the public beta of a social networking service called plaxo pulse . 8 the service enabled sharing of content from multiple different sources across the social web including blogs photos social networking services rating services and others . users can selectively share and view content according to either pre determined categories e.g. friends family business network or customized groups . plaxo pulse was the first site to feature a working version of an opensocial container . 9 in may 2008 plaxo announced that it had signed an agreement to be acquired by comcast . 10 the terms of the deal were not disclosed . comcast completed its purchase of plaxo on july 1 2008 . 11 that month the website reported 20 million users . 12 in march 2010 it was announced that ceo ben golub would be replaced by the company s general manager justin miller . 13 14 in march 2011 plaxo s head of product management preston smalley 13 was named general manager ; at the same time plaxo announced that it was exiting social networking ending the plaxo pulse social networking service and introducing a new address book updating service . 15 functionality edit plaxo provides automatic updating of contact information . users and their contacts store their information in the cloud on plaxo s servers . when this information is edited by the user the changes appear in the address books of all those who listed the account changer in their own books . once contacts are stored in the central location it is possible to list connections between contacts and access the address book from anywhere . a plaxo plug in supports major address books including outlook outlook express mozilla thunderbird and mac os x s address book ios and blackberry and others can be supported through an application programming interface . additionally plaxo can be maintained online . plaxo 3.0 edit on june 24 2007 plaxo announced the public beta of a major new version of its service called plaxo 3.0 . the service emphasizes automated multi way sync . 16 17 charging for outlook synchronization service edit on july 30 2009 the previously free synchronization services for outlook moved to plaxo s premium paid service . according to plaxo this change will allow us to continue to invest in the development and support of this valuable but high cost feature . existing users of the free service were offered a 20 % lifetime discount on plaxo premium . this paid service is now called platinum sync . 18 personal assistant edit on march 16 2011 plaxo announced its personal assistant 19 which updates 20 users address books with suggestions from publicly available information . mobile applications edit on july 19 2011 plaxo announced an improved iphone app ; a new blackberry app ; a windows mobile app ; and syncing for android phones with an app coming out by the end of september . 21 references edit i plaxo . sequoia capital . plaxo launches press release . plaxo inc. 12 nov 2002 . america online inc. and plaxo inc. form agreement to help aol members and aim users better manage contact information press release . plaxo inc. july 6 2005 . coursey david december 8 2003 . why my address book is spamming you . zdnet anchordesk . archived from the original on january 5 2007 . coursey david september 9 2004 . plaxo reconsidered . eweek . retrieved oct 7 2012 . capili redgee . your contact information ownership vs. privacy . blog . plaxo inc. comcast announces plans to launch interactive smartzone tm communications center press release . comcast . may 7 2007 . capili redgee august 5 2007 . oh geez not another social network . blog . plaxo inc. ha peter november 2 2007 . plaxo implements opensocial ning goes live friday night . blog . techcrunch . comcast to acquire plaxo pulse to become central to creating unified social media experience across the web the tv and more press release . plaxo inc. may 14 2008 . capili redgee 1 july 2008 . now the deal is closed plaxo has become a business unit of comcast interactive media . blog . plaxo inc. capili redgee may 22 2008 . product updates the plaxo directory is now live . blog . plaxo inc. a b management team . plaxo inc. retrieved 16 november 2012 . kincaid jason march 25 2010 . plaxo ceo ben golub steps down to be replaced by justin miller . techcrunch . empson rip 16 march 2011 . plaxo goes back to being a smart address book launches virtual assistant . techcrunch . introducing an all new plaxo . blog . plaxo inc. june 24 2007 . eric auchard june 25 2007 . plaxo turns address books into web social networks . reuters . plaxo platinum sync . plaxo inc. retrieved 16 november 2012 . plaxo personal assistant . plaxo inc. retrieved 16 november 2012 . smalley preston march 20 2011 . an important milestone and it s only the beginning . inside plaxo . plaxo inc. plaxo mobile trends study infographic press release . plaxo inc. july 19 2011 . external links edit v t e comcast programming fearnet former part owner comcast entertainment tv comcast tv mlb network minority stake xfinity 3d spectacor 63 % philadelphia flyers wells fargo center new era tickets comcasttix interactive media xfinity areas with xfinity movies.com xfinity streampix plaxo theplatform nbcuniversal universal studios nbc universal parks nbcu cable telemundo nbcu tv group nbc sports group nbcu news group related articles other holdings current comcast spotlight guideworks hits midco part owner in demand part owner former tvworks 67 % retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title plaxo & oldid 737807270 categories social networking servicespim software for windowspim software for os xprofessional networkscompanies based in sunnyvale californiacommunity websitesinternet services supporting openid navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschfran aisbahasa indonesiaitalianonederlands edit links this page was last modified on 5 september 2016 at 04 41 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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