Mozilla Gains Support from Plaxo

Plaxo announced Tuesday that it will extend support to Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail client by offering a beta version of its toolbar for synchronizing address books. The toolbar is part of an initiative by the California-based company to expand its service across more platforms.

Thunderbird is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and is used by millions worldwide. The addition of Plaxo compatibility could help the e-mail client gain greater acceptance in enterprise environments, where the plug-in counts most of its users.

"The Thunderbird client provides Plaxo members with yet another option to have consistent and up-to-date information across multiple locations and accounts, as well as able to access their contact information from their preferred platform and on their favored email client," Plaxo founder Todd Masonis said.

Plaxo counts users in over 83 countries, as well as users within 98 of the Fortune 100 companies. Those who sign up for the service are able to have their address books automatically update with new contact information from other Plaxo users that are in their address book.

The service additionally allows the user to access its Outlook calendar, tasks and notes from anywhere with a Internet connection. Users can also import contact data from Netscape, Palm, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail accounts.

The client is available for download starting today from the Plaxo Web site. The toolbar, as well as basic service, will be free. The company offers premium services, such as mobile access, customer support and address book optimization for $29.95 USD per year.