Jelmer de Jong

In the past few weeks, Google is rapidly improving and expanding its social functionality. They already have a (forgotten) social network: Orkut (member since February ‘04). But now they are trying to build a massive network by combining Google Profiles, Contacts and Friend Connect. Really cool and I definitely like Google, but please, I don’t need another social network. I like the current Google applications and I like them to grow and expand in functionality.

I use most of Google’s products on a daily basis: Gmail, Reader, Calendar, Docs, Contacts. And most of them also synchronize with my Blackberries (8300 and bold) and iPhone. Great tools that really help me to be more productive. But they can still be improved. Especially the contacts function. I have some tips for Google to improve Google Contacts:

• Please synchronize Groups and Categories! The groups in Google Contacts can just as easy be the categories on my Blackberry and the groups on my iPhone. Now my contacts are only grouped in Google Contacts and the grouping is lost when synchronizing to my cellphones
• Address entry sucks, sorry. I love free fields, but they just don’t synchronize. If I enter an address on my Blackberry it contains too many returns in Google Contacts. And addresses entered in Google Contacts cannot be find on the Google Map (!) when clicking it on my iPhone. Just create some fields: address line 1, address line 2, postal/zip code, state, city, country and this problem can be solved
• Most businesses, and even most people, in my contact list have web pages. Corporate websites, personal blogs, LinkedIn profiles, Facebook profiles. Please let me enter URLs. Sure, I know I can add custom fields by hand for every contact, but again: synchronizing problems. Just an URL entry field with an add button, the same as wehn entering telephone numbers, should be great (drop down items: work, private, blog, linkedin, free entry)
• Sharing! I can share documents and appointments, let me share contacts! Very handy when I tell a friend we going to meet at a bar and I could just send him the contact card. No download, upload, email. No, click share, select friend and it pops up in his Google Contacts (and cellphone!)
• I like gimmicks; please add “Put your friends on the map” as a nice gimmick. Just a Google Map with dots that show were my friends live. Useful? Neh, but pretty cool

Google, I hope my input to improve Google Contacts is useful for you. Let me know if you need more info or specs.

(note: last week I tried to post these ideas as a comment on this blogpost by Google, but i’m still awaiting moderation)