(pictured: a protective snapshot of my Contacts list)
When I was but a lad, my mom had this address book that we used to hold all the contact information of our family and friends. It was, I’m sure, a very slick, clean address book at one point. But, years of people moving, dying, and otherwise caused this book to become a scribbly mess. Do you have an address book like this? Then it’s time to replace it.
Google Contacts is yet another Google service that I patronize, but it may be the most useful of any that I have. Sure, my Gmail is my main command center for all contact with personal and business folk, and Google Reader supplies so much of my ongoing education and fun reading. But Google Contacts is how I keep track of the people in my life, and for a few very good reasons.
It is backed-up
First, let’s start with the “backed-up” part of that. If we had ever had a house fire growing up (and I thank God we never did), that address book would have been lost forever, and we would have been stuck calling around and asking for everybody’s addresses and phone numbers and, well, you get the idea. Having an online service manage your address book makes it impervious to natural disasters. This includes storing contacts on your mobile phones (if you’ll see in the next sections): think about that the next time you are invited to a Facebook group called, “HEY I LOST MY PHONE PLEASE SEND ME UR NUMBER AGAIN THX!!!!!!!!!”
It is independent
What do I mean by that? Most mobile phone services come with some form of online backup solution. For example, my Blackberry Curve can sync up with an online Blackberry account to hang on to all my contacts. But what happens when I switch phones? And more importantly, what happens if I switch phones because something happened to my Blackberry? Let’s say I drop my phone in the toilet and it doesn’t work anymore. Now I want to upgrade to a Droid phone. How big of a pain in the butt will it be to access my contact list from my Blackberry account and get it on to my Droid phone?
Google Contacts comes with a fantastic feature called “Google Sync”, where you can sync your phone with your Google Contacts. I have it installed on my Blackberry, and I can bring up anyone’s name and address through my phone’s address book. This is handy when filling out applications where you need references. Plus, if I get a new phone, I just fire up Google Sync on that phone and all my contacts will be imported to it. And if I make any changes in my Google Contacts list or on my phone’s address book, it all gets synced up together. It’s a beautiful thing, and it makes it painless to manage.
It is searchable
You remember the old address books, right? They had these tabs on the side that said “AB”, “CD”, all the way to “WXYZ” because apparently nobody knew that many people with last names with those letters. You had to find your way to their last name, then find it among the mess of addresses, and it might be at the end now because they moved. Ugh. Just like anything Google, Contacts is searchable. Just click the search box and start typing. It won’t even let you finish typing before it starts giving you results. Quick. Simple.
I’m sure there are other reasons, but these are some of my favorites. Do you use Google Contacts? Do you manage your address book with a different service? Share in the comments!
Tom is an entrepreneur and freelance writer, working out of his apartment full-time, or wherever he feels like taking his laptop. He doesn't take long European vacations or blogs on the beach. He's an Average Joe that took control of his life. He wants you to do the same.
