The AJAX Acquisitions Are Underway

Just a little note about something that crossed my inbox. I’m a regular Plaxo user, not for the networking aspects, but because I used it to clean up my huge rat’s nest of a contact list. Plaxo also operates as the link between my need to have an online calendar and my desire to sync my PDA to Outlook. (I use Outlook strictly as middleware, not as an application.)

The calendar functions in Plaxo are fine, I guess. They work, though they’re sometimes slow, and the interface doesn’t exactly make you go “wow”. But now Plaxo has bought HipCal, a clever, AJAX-based online calendar that features what I find to be a faster and easier-to-navigate interface, iCal support, shared calendars and more. What it lacked was Plaxo’s network of users and syncronization capabilities.

I’m hoping to see some rapid improvement in Plaxo’s tools as a result of the HipCal buy. For its part, Plaxo seems to be hoping the generate a little buzz. They’re promoting the fact that HipCal was built by a quintet of college buddies whose first post-college “dream jobs” will be at Plaxo. Check out the HipCal blog for more info and blow a couple more puffs into the Web 2.0 bubble for me.