Contacts in the Browser (Firefox) 0.3 released

While we are constantly being pulled into more and more social networks, Mozilla has taken one of the first steps towards bringing the individual/personal Global Address Book into reality.  Specifically, I am referring to their Contacts plug-in for Firefox:

If you haven't tried it, I strongly recommend it, if for no other reason than to see what really could be possible and have a tiny taste of my vision.

This project is fantastic step in the right direction.

• It imports from Gmail, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Thunderbird.
• If the contact information matches and the field map, it merges the contacts
• It searches the web for additional social links and adds the appropriate URLs.
• It doesn't overwrite existing contacts.
• It adds the appropriate pictures.
• It includes birthdays.

But it needs more.

• As of right now, it only pulls in data.  You can't edit it, export, or sync
  • I really, really wish I could at least export or find a website that would be willing to import from this plug-in.
• You can't merge or tell the software to always merge specific contacts when importing.
  • Duplication and Merging is extremely dangerous.
  • I'm trying to get a duplication post done later in the week.
• While it tags URLs for Social Networking Profiles, those URLs are sometimes duplicated in the URL field of a contact.
• Since this is an early alpha, I would hope that they add the appropriate Social Networking Logo next to the corresponding URL.
• When it imports Twitter, it imports ALL of the people you are following, not just your contacts
• You can't import from multiple Twitter accounts.
• Due to Facebook restrictions, it won't import addresses or phone numbers (yet).
  • I've seen a greasemonkey script to grab the phone numbers.
  • The email addresses can be imported via Yahoo or Microsoft Live, but not Gmail.
• And probably the biggest nail in the coffin, doesn't work with Outlook or Mac Address Book.
  • While I understand the need for open-source, to get mass reach, needs to work with the major clients.

Anyway, again, it's still in Alpha and hasn't even reached a 1.0 release yet, but I am an extremely happy camper and cannot WAIT to see what they do next.  Perhaps incorporate a personal Funambol Sync server?