If you’re a heavy user of Google Apps, you know that the\r\nGoogle Contacts Manager isn’t the greatest tool in an otherwise outstanding\r\ntoolbox. In fact, the contact manager trapped within Google Docs is so bad, I\r\nuse it only as a Gmail address book. How this has been overlooked for so long\r\nescapes me — considering how the business landscape lives and dies by its\r\ncontacts. Finding third-party contact managers for Google Contacts isn’t easy.\r\nBut between Android and web-based apps/services, I have come up with a solid\r\nlist of five contact managers that work with Google Contacts to bring a bit of\r\npower and flexibility to a rather weak entry.
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FullContact, previously called RainMaker, is a web service (currently in beta)\r\nthat automatically collects your Gmail Contacts. It features a unified contact\r\nmanager, so you can import contacts from other lists/apps, too. The FullContact\r\ninterface is simple to use and allows you to tag, add notes, edit, and enter information\r\n(organization, title, address, phone, etc.). You can also add multiple address\r\nbooks and import business cards.
From within the Settings, you can enrich your contacts.\r\nFullContact will pull in publicly available information about a client and\r\nautomatically add it to the contact. There are two versions of FullContact:\r\nFree and Premium. The Premium edition will set you back $9.99 per month (or\r\n$99.00 per year). It will hold up to 25K contacts, allows you to import 100\r\nbusiness cards per month, and offers real time syncing of contacts.
One caveat: You must add the Gmail Account to\r\nThunderbird for it to work properly (otherwise, you just view the Gmail\r\nContacts page in a tab within Thunderbird). The app is free and is\r\nfound/installed in the Thunderbirds Add-ons Manager.
Contacts\r\nUltra features easy navigation, access to all contact info from the contact\r\npicture, the ability to sort contacts by name or conversation and to add/edit\r\ncontacts, an option to enable/disable sync, a homescreen widget, and more. The\r\napp is free and includes ads. You can dismiss the ads with the in-app purchase\r\n($0.99).
Zoho\r\nContactManager is geared toward helping you get business done rather than just\r\nkeeping a digital Rolodex. Zoho ContactManager is $25/month for up to five\r\nusers.
Jack Wallen is an award-winning writer for TechRepublic, The New Stack, and Linux New Media. He's covered a variety of topics for over twenty years and is an avid promoter of open source. For more news about Jack Wallen, visit his website jackwallen.com.
