Rated 4 out of 5 stars

by TreeDoctor on Sept. 16, 2011 · permalink

Back in the day, when I had a PDA that couldn't make phone calls, and a phone that couldn't store (very much) data, I carried two devices with me (including a phone that worked for 3-4 days on a single charge), and synchronized my contact list by plugging my PDA into my computer, and running something like ActiveSync (Windows) or HotSync (PalmOS).... Then along came so-called "Smart Phones" (one of the most absurd misnomers ever), and "The Cloud" (the most insidious meteorlogical phenomenon since Hurricane Katrina). Now we are up the proverbial fecal matter-infested creek without a paddle.
Given the the general mess regarding database structure of the various systems of contact lists, I think the author of this Add-in has done a great job of trying to reconcile two distinct databases. The biggest complaints I have are against Mozilla, Google, and RIM, not the Add-on itself. I feel the industry needs to form Joint Contacts Expert Group to create a new ".JCEG" standard, that will enable consistency of database structure and terminology.
The synchronization of individual records works well, although not perfectly. Some contacts mysteriously do not synchronize... i.e. they are present in Google, but not in T-bird. The sync seems to have problems with records that are entered as company names (i.e. nothing in the "Name" field(s). I haven't yet been able to figure out why these problems pop up, but this is the only reason I give **** rather than *****.
However, It's the groupings that cause confusion. Formerly, I used Outlook "Categories" to keep my contacts separated into different groups, but neither Thunderbird, nor Blackberry, nor Mozilla uses categories (at least not in the user interface, although it MIGHT be present in the database itself (??). Now that I've ported my contacts over to Google, I have my ~1900 contacts broken out into different "groups", including one called "Active Contacts" and another called "Archive Contacts", etc. These are intended to be kept separate. Groupings of contacts are termed "Groups" in Gmail" and "Mailing Lists" in Thunderbird.... and these appear (in general) to be maintained during the synchronization, with a few limitations. Be aware that the Main group of "all" contacts for any mail service corresponds to an "unnamed" group in Google termed "All Contacts" (which you can actually view in the Beta version of Google Contacts, but not the normal view). Thus, all your Google contacts are synchronized, UNLESS you select just a single "Group" in the "Experimental" section of the Options for Google Contacts add-on. I haven't tried this features, as I need more than one of my groups to be synched.... so it's either all of them, or just one of them. It would be nice to be able to select multiple groups... thus another -1/2 star.
Now... Say you create a new contact in T-bird. Since there's no way to specify which group to assign it to, it will be part of your master list, but will be "unclassified". Somehow, the author of the add-on has devised to synch these to a group labeled "Other Contacts". Assuming you know to look for them there, you can then select the contact and decide which "group" you want it to be part of. This is very simple to do in Google, but not in T-bird, where you have to open the corresponding mail list, and add the new contact manually.... Not very convenient.
For BB users, a new contact created on your phone will be synched via GoogleSync to a Google group called "My Contacts". From there, you can add it OR MOVE IT to any other group you want. Once this is done, the "Google Contacts" add-on for Thunderbird obligingly syncs this to the "My contacts" mail list in Thunderbird.
All this is entirely undocumented, and it's taken me hours to figure it out.... but then, I seem to be spending most of my life recently trying to figure out how to make modern computer do what they used to be able to do much more simply and directly.
Bottom line is that this is an indispensable "leg" in my efforts to keep my contacts synched between the "cloud", my local email client (Thunderbird), and my Blackberry "smart phone". (read "idiot phone"). Given the impediments thrown up by competing forces in the computer industry, and unless and until Google offers mail clients for Blackberry and Windows (fat chance of that happening), this is the best we can do.