Plaxo's "Connected Index"
Many of you may recognize Plaxo for its Web-based contact management service. I've been using Plaxo for three years with the Outlook plug-in. With so many people changing employers (particularly in the technology space), keeping information current for my network of contacts is invaluable.
The mid-2000s will be known as the heyday of the social community. Through a grassroots movement, community is racing into the enterprise. While the average user may not be aware of the overall significance, the likelihood is that the user has heard of or subscribed to one or more types of social community services, e.g., Plaxo, LinkedIn, Flickr, de.lici.ous or a multitude of others. We're in the era of "connectedness" -- sharing information for the benefit of all.
Plaxo has cleverly leveraged the aggregated demographics of its subscribers to build a Connected Index that:
1) Shows the growth of the community movement geographically
2) Builds Plaxo's mindshare, which will build Plaxo's subscriber base