Address book product design based on cloud computing

Address Book is a service that records the contact methods, addresses, and other information of user contacts. As a real-name social network, based on Address Book, many popular Internet applications can be derived, such as instant messaging, emails, social networks, and many local applications, such as users' computer outlook and mobile phone address book.

With the rapid development of the information society, the communication between people becomes more and more frequent, and the communication methods become more and more diversified. How can we ensure the communication with friends, classmates, colleagues, leaders, and relatives, it can easily and quickly search, record, and modify the relevant communication information. manual management alone cannot meet the growing needs of Address Book Management.

　　Current Situation of the address book Product Market

There are many products with Address Book, including pure address book products (plaxo) and address book attached to social networking websites (Renren, Sina Weibo, etc) address Book (such as QQ and MSN), Address Book (Gmail and Netease mailbox), Address Book (Outlook Address Book) on personal computers, and mobile phone Address Book (Fire Address Book application) and address book value-added services (Kik,). Each social product has its own address book, most of which are unrelated. A large number of address books lead to a growing workload for users to manage address books, data in various address books is not synchronized, which makes maintaining the address book a nightmare.

How can we solve the current chaos in Address Book Management? In this case, we have encountered the issue of personal document management before. Many people work on a computer, go home to use a computer, and use a laptop on a business trip. It is very difficult to synchronize and update their work documents on different computers, earlier, in order to synchronize files, people usually used USB flash drives to copy and paste files, which was very troublesome and difficult to manage versions, which was prone to errors. In the end, the cloud storage synchronization service headed by Dropbox emerged, you can use Dropbox to automatically synchronize and update files on multiple computers, automatically complete all updates and version management operations, and automatically synchronize and update files between several computers, every day, the latest version of the document is automatically downloaded from the computer. After any computer updates the document, it will be automatically uploaded to the cloud storage server and synchronized to other computers, thus, the tool perfectly solves the problem of synchronizing documents from multiple computers.

Since Dropbox can successfully manage file synchronization on multiple computers, we can also use cloud computing methods to distribute users to various terminals (computers, mailboxes, mobile phones, etc.) in the address book) the address book is organically integrated to facilitate, quickly and flexibly manage the communication information of individuals, companies and related personnel, and to learn about the contact's latest contact method.

The following is a new cloud storage service designed by the moonlight blog, which is similar to Dropbox, but with the address book as the core, A so-called "cloud Address Book" is used to synchronize and manage all user Address Book information.

　　Features of cloud address book

Cloud address book is a cloud computing-based address book product. As a basic service, it has the following features:

1) based on cloud storage and cloud computing.

2) supports multi-platform synchronization (such as outlook, Gmail contacts, other mailbox contacts, mobile phone Address Book, Renren friends, kaixin.com friends, and so on ).

3) automatic backup ensures data security and prevents loss of user contacts.

4) Establish a network relationship (the user can contact the address book member, and both parties will be friends after confirmation ).

5) Social Address Book: the user's contact information is automatically maintained by the contact. The contact information changed by the contact can be automatically updated to the address book of all friends.

6) integrates email, SMS, and instant messaging functions.

7) use the vCard standard to exchange address book data.

　　Profit Model of cloud address book

If there is no good profit model for any service, it is difficult to operate successfully. Excellent services such as Dropbox provide personalized charging services. The profit model of the cloud Address Book can refer to the following:

1) function restrictions: free User Function restrictions (for example, only M messages can be sent free of charge), some functions are only for paid users (charged SMS)

2) limit on the number of contacts: for example, the number of free users is less than N, and the number of paid users is more than N.

3) platform restrictions: Web terminals are free of charge and mobile terminals are charged.

4) use incentives to guide user operations: Establish an invitation mechanism similar to Dropbox. Each time a user is invited, the user will be rewarded with space or capacity.

　　Cloud Address Book SWOT analysis

1) Disadvantages:

1.1 synchronization on different platforms requires a lot of development work

1.2 difficult maintenance

1.3 data format changes on third-party platforms

2) Advantages

2.1 data security and automatic backup

2.2 multi-platform Address Book Synchronization

2.3 Support for customized platforms

2.4 SNS Address Book Synchronization

3) Threats

3.1 Google has synchronized the address book between Gmail and mobile phones

3.2 enterprise concerns about information security

3.3 users do not have high demands for address book Synchronization

4) Opportunities

4.1 no similar products in China

4.2 The access speed of similar foreign products plaxo from China is slow, and the synchronization of Address Book functions is charged

4.3 Google does not support synchronization of domestic SNS applications

　　Cloud Address Book Interface Design

1) Import Gmail contacts

Use the Google Address Book API to import Gmail contacts.

2) Import Hotmail contacts

Use the Windows Live contacts API to import Hotmail contacts.

3) Import Yahoo contacts

Use the Yahoo API to import Yahoo contacts.

4) mobile phone contact Synchronization

Exchange ActiveSync or SyncML protocols are available, and SyncML servers can be built using open-source products. Supports Nokia mobile phones and outlook. Exchange ActiveSync supports iPhone/iPad, Android phones, and outlook. Both have ready-made server and client software.

5) synchronize Outlook

You can use the SyncML protocol for synchronization. Reference tool.

6) synchronize with Renren

Use Renren APIs to connect to friends and contacts of Renren.

7) synchronize with Sina Weibo

Use the Sina Weibo API to connect to friends and contacts of Sina Weibo.

8) synchronization of domestic mailboxes

Mainstream mailboxes in China, such as Netease And QQ, do not provide API services. Therefore, they cannot easily obtain contact information like Gmail and Hotmail, you can only capture the Email Contact by simulating user logon.

　　Cloud Address Book instance analysis: plaxo

Plaxo is a professional online address book provider. The company is located in Mountain View city, California. According to the website, there are 40 million users who provide paid synchronization solutions, it can automatically synchronize with Outlook, Gmail, and other mailboxes. Plaxo also has some social network functions that allow users to publish Weibo posts, blogs, and upload photos.

1) Homepage

The plaxo home page displays the main core features of the address book, which is very simple. It describes what the plaxo address book is and what it can do in a large font.

2) logon Interface

After logging on to plaxo, the address book Statistics will be displayed. plaxo can connect to social networking websites (Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, etc.). You can view the aggregated information of each social networking website in plaxo.

I think this function is redundant. If it is operated in China, it will bring a lot of extra risks.

3) connect to social networks

Plaxo supports social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google Reader, but does not support popular social networking websites and Weibo in China.

4) import other address books

Plaxo can be used to import contacts from websites such as Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, outlook, and linkdin. It supports importing files in CSV format and does not support importing contacts from domestic mailboxes or social network sites. When you import other email contacts, you will be prompted to enter the email password. Do you dare to enter your Gmail password in the prompt box below?

In addition, plaxo can automatically find people users may know and prompt users "people you may know ".

5) export the address book

The open point of plaxo is that the address book is exported to CSV, VCF, and other formats, and users can download the network address book to the local device anytime and anywhere.

6) Contact Management

Plaxo can maintain basic data of a personal address book, including personal archives and communication information data. You can manually enter the contact information and modify or delete the contact information. For query, you can search by name or other fields. The address book includes fields such as name, company, group, phone number, mobile phone number, email number, and type. The address book can be grouped.

You can also maintain your personal files, such as modifying and deleting them. After the personal information is modified, the address book data of a friend is automatically updated.

7) Group Management

In addition to contact information, plaxo also provides the ability to create, edit, and delete groups.

　　Summary

The above is my idea of the cloud storage address book product. This idea already has a product called plaxo in foreign countries, but I personally feel that plaxo is not very useful, in addition, its core synchronization functions cannot be used for free. As a basic service, the address book may not make any money in the short term, but it is of vital significance to enterprises, based on the address book, you can easily implement SNS and social messaging services like Kik messenger, which is why many people covet the address book.

However, there are already products such as Kik and Kik in social text messages. in the mobile phone address book, there are friends in the address book and fire in the address book, and in the iPhone address book, there are I address book, etc, the address book based on mobile phones and websites is synchronized with the free version of Renren (synchronize Renren and mobile phone contacts) and QQ mobile phone (synchronize QQ mail and mobile phone). In general, there are already a lot of products in the mobile phone address book, and many products are already very well-developed. It is difficult for start-ups to develop similar products. Few companies are involved in the synchronization of Address Book products. The development and implementation of such products have the function of mobile phone address book. Therefore, it is a good innovation to intervene in the address book market.