Best free online address book? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Jimellow · 10-07-2004, 05:13 PM

Lately, I use Yahoo Mail's address book for my contacts, but I was wondering if there is a website that hosts standalone address books for their users (not mail, just the address book), and also if it's free?

I've only seen Yahoo's address book, and am not sure how good it is compared to what else is available online. Does anyone know of better online address book websites, preferably standalone, but if they are attached to mail or something else, but decent, then that's fine.

I guess a program would work also, but it's nice to be able to access it from anywhere, thus online is ideal. However, if you have a program to recommend, please share it too!

Thanks!

Church · 10-07-2004, 05:19 PM

Honestly, I encourage you NOT to use online address books. They are a feeding ground for hackers to get addresses for mailing lists and stuff. I dunno, sorry I'm not much help, but the people that you put in your address book may not appreciate it.

jcookc6 · 10-07-2004, 06:24 PM

The good thing about an address book like Yahoo's is that if your hard drive crashes, you don't lose your info.

NeoRete · 10-07-2004, 06:48 PM

I agree with church, from experience the ease of use in using a web address book comes with the problem of being less secure. The best security would be to have an address book set up through an email client like Mozilla Thunderbird (mozilla.org). You could periodically save your address book and keep it in your email account for easy accessability.

Backups are very painless with CDR's being so cheap if you worry about your info (better data security), but that's another topic.

Jimellow · 10-07-2004, 06:58 PM

Thanks for the replies.

Are there any programs created specifically for the purpose of serving as an address book?

I'd prefer not to have to use a mail client just to take advantage of the address book feature, as I'd much rather find a standalone address program, if one exists. It would also be ideal if such a program had the ability to export and import address books.

Email clients are fine, but I'd prefer to find a standalone program, so that I could open it just to enter and view my addresses, and not have to deal with the mail client aspect of the program.

Thanks again.

NeoRete · 10-10-2004, 04:21 PM

I've not seen many good address books that existed outside of an email program, but possibly someone could correct me.

An alternative option that might be livable is to set Mozilla Thunderbird to work in offline mode so that you don't need to deal with its mail functions. Import / Export is very easy with Thunderbird's address book, and it also has an excellent advanced search function that I haven't seen in most applications.

10-07-2004, 05:13 PM	#1 (permalink)
Jimellow Junkie	Best free online address book? Lately, I use Yahoo Mail's address book for my contacts, but I was wondering if there is a website that hosts standalone address books for their users (not mail, just the address book), and also if it's free? I've only seen Yahoo's address book, and am not sure how good it is compared to what else is available online. Does anyone know of better online address book websites, preferably standalone, but if they are attached to mail or something else, but decent, then that's fine. I guess a program would work also, but it's nice to be able to access it from anywhere, thus online is ideal. However, if you have a program to recommend, please share it too! Thanks!

10-07-2004, 05:19 PM	#2 (permalink)
Church Tilted F*ckhead Location: New Jersey	Honestly, I encourage you NOT to use online address books. They are a feeding ground for hackers to get addresses for mailing lists and stuff. I dunno, sorry I'm not much help, but the people that you put in your address book may not appreciate it. __________________ Through counter-intelligence, it should be possible to pinpoint potential trouble makers, and neutralize them.

10-07-2004, 06:48 PM	#4 (permalink)
NeoRete Crazy Location: Cape Cod	I agree with church, from experience the ease of use in using a web address book comes with the problem of being less secure. The best security would be to have an address book set up through an email client like Mozilla Thunderbird (mozilla.org). You could periodically save your address book and keep it in your email account for easy accessability. Backups are very painless with CDR's being so cheap if you worry about your info (better data security), but that's another topic. __________________ Charlie was a chemist but Charlie is nomore, what Charlie thought was H2O was H2SO4

10-10-2004, 04:21 PM	#6 (permalink)
NeoRete Crazy Location: Cape Cod	I've not seen many good address books that existed outside of an email program, but possibly someone could correct me. An alternative option that might be livable is to set Mozilla Thunderbird to work in offline mode so that you don't need to deal with its mail functions. Import / Export is very easy with Thunderbird's address book, and it also has an excellent advanced search function that I haven't seen in most applications. __________________ Charlie was a chemist but Charlie is nomore, what Charlie thought was H2O was H2SO4

10-07-2004, 06:24 PM	#3 (permalink)
jcookc6 Psycho Location: Venice, Florida	The good thing about an address book like Yahoo's is that if your hard drive crashes, you don't lose your info.

10-07-2004, 06:58 PM	#5 (permalink)
Jimellow Junkie	Thanks for the replies. Are there any programs created specifically for the purpose of serving as an address book? I'd prefer not to have to use a mail client just to take advantage of the address book feature, as I'd much rather find a standalone address program, if one exists. It would also be ideal if such a program had the ability to export and import address books. Email clients are fine, but I'd prefer to find a standalone program, so that I could open it just to enter and view my addresses, and not have to deal with the mail client aspect of the program. Thanks again.