Basically what it comes down to is that email clients often have difficulties syncing locally stored contacts to web-based mail services that don’t use Exchange Server (in which case, sometimes contacts get over-written anyway). Soocial solves this issue by storing your contacts in one centralized location. Not only can you sync your contacts between your email and web clients, but you can also sync your contacts with your mobile device. This means that if you have to change phones or services, you won’t loose your contacts.

The biggest benefit that I saw is with my iPhone. iPhone now has Exchange support, but I am weary of activating it for fear that my contacts will be lost. Now that I have my contacts backed-up externally, I can do all that I want with my phone without loosing my precious data.

Soocial also has a really nice contact management interface that allows you to merge your contacts from your different sources, and streamline your address book (AKA no duplicate contacts to worry about).

Keep in mind, I’m not affiliated with Soocial. I just really appreciate the service, and think that my friends should know about it.

It’s actually fairly cleaver on the part of Microsoft, as their strong-hold on International markets is not as great as it is here. They can also control the environment in which people view their OS, making it a little easier sell because it won’t be running slow. Besides that, the know that they can get the geeks hooked with offerings of coffee. Nicely played, Microsoft…