Contact Management!

Question

I have facebook, various websites, Windows Live Messenger, Adium, Pidgin, etc etc etc

I need a way of corralling all the information I have on people so rather than lookign at 20 different websites for 20 different profiles, and 5 different machines, I would rather be able to convert all my chat logs into a common form, and easily put as much of this information into a single place.

Currently I mainly use windows live messenger on my 2 main machines, one of which is a macbook and has Adium/OS X 10.6 in boot camp too. I also have google contacts to try and minimize duplication by using push on my phone.

How can I solve the problem, and if not, how can I minimize it? ( Currently running with chrome )

Answer 1

Why not use Pidgin ? Pidgin supports almost all chat protocols (including Facebook) and you get to have a common chat log. To keep the logs in sync, use a service like Dropbox.

One problem with just installing DropBox, it can only sync what’s in it’s folder. We can’t move the chat logs folder of pidgin, so we need to create symbolic links, and junctions between the folders on each computer. The process of doing this may vary depending on the platform you’re using. First, we need to locate the DropBox folder, and the logs folder for Pidgin.

Linux: ~/.purple/logs/

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data

Vista: C:\Users\myuser\AppData\Roaming\.purple\logs

If you’re on linux, then you can use the ln command to create a symbolic link:

ln -s [TARGET DIRECTORY OR FILE] ./[SHORTCUT]

If you’re in Windows XP, you’ll need to download and use this shell extension.

In Windows Vista/7, you can use the mklink command.

To create symbolic link called foo to reference to c:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe

C:\test>mklink foo c:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe

Answer 2

Use Meebo. Meebo.com can log into most of your contacts into a common single-signon, web-based application. No need to install anything unless you want to.