Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Odds and ends, Developer
Googaby brings hard fought freedom to your Google contacts
Friends! Gmail users! Countrymen! Lend me your ears! For too long our Google contacts have slaved away under their Gmail masters, confined to the tyranny of the browser, and chained to their own accounts. For too long, we have stood idly by while our contacts toil away in slavery, constantly having to copy-and-paste (or worse, retype) if they must be moved anywhere (unless you have an iPhone and can leverage the built-in contact sync from Address Book).But our savior, at long last, is here! Googaby is an app that will liberate your Google contacts, pull them out of the oppression of however many Gmail accounts you have, and let you drag and drop them off between accounts and onto spreadsheets and other external sources. It'll also backup your contacts, and you can even drag and drop contact pictures -- no more must we undergo the deadly toil of updating contacts by hand! No more must we suffer the toils of servitude!
The price of freedom? Only $24.95, and that includes the already-spilt blood of your contact brethren. If you spend an inordinate amount of time challenging the filthy, greedy overlords of your Gmail accounts, who refuse to let you share or edit your contacts easily, now is the time to rise up! Now is the time for a revolution! Freedom for us all!
Thanks Laurie
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
alex said 5:16PM on 2-25-2009
Got very excited when I read about this because I really would like to use this app to upload my Mac AB contacts to Google Contacts--so I could get my iPhone in sync with Google's new ActiveSync software. I've avoided doing this with the built-in iTunes sync and the CSV export tools, because photos don't sync. It sounds stupid, but once you've invested all that time into adding photos to your contacts and already having them on your iPhone, going without them sucks.
So... I downloaded and tried the demo of Googaby after seeing this article. Just have been trying out the AB syncing with Google contacts, not the other functionality yet, and Googaby won't sync properly. The software feels very beta, the UI is not straight-forward. When I go to sync just one group of contacts from my AB to Google, it spits out an error of multiple email conflicts of contacts that aren't even in that group. Uploading all contacts only managed to upload empty groups. When trying to pull down contacts from Google, it seems you have to restart the app to see any updates, and even then it's unreliable. Also, the updates don't seem to work properly, as I have contacts in my Google contacts with email addresses, but Googaby doesn't want pull those fields down.
I'd really love for this app to work, and would even be willing to pay for the full price, but this is not fully baked. It needs a beta test period (I'd be happy to volunteer!). I will drop the developer some comments in the built-in bug report about these problems, but there doesn't seem to be anywhere on the dev. website to correspond with the dev., or see where your bug report goes.
I just left the same comment on a MacWorld post (sorry for the double post).
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alex said 6:45PM on 2-25-2009
Sorry for the multiple comments, but I did reach out to the developers thru the Bug Report feature, and they quickly emailed back trying to problem shoot. Turns out for me, it may matter how contacts were originally entered into Google Contacts, and whether or not they have "Home," "Work," or "Other" next to them. For me, they don't seem to have anything listed, and Googaby can't see them, at the moment.
As for the multiple email addresses problem that's preventing me from syncing, they've acknowledged the bug and are working to fix it as soon as tonight.
ccmilesd said 2:18PM on 2-26-2009
I paid for the app - I've got multiple gmail accounts, all with different contacts, I've got photos in my Address book - and NO option up until now has the ability to "push" (don't ever say sync) groups.
Its nice, expect that for me... one of the software bugs is being unable to send a software bug!
So I can't use this at all, and there is no way of getting ahold of the developers (a email on the website would be a start).
If you're thinking about buying this product, I'd wait a few months until they get their crap together.... at this point all they are good at is getting TUAW, Macworld, and others to reprint their press release.
Mihir said 5:33PM on 2-25-2009
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this feature already built in to address book?
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David Hildreth said 5:51PM on 2-25-2009
Yeah, I think the difference is being able to choose which to import and which not to. Everyone you have ever emailed is a "contact" with gmail.
Rembert said 6:04PM on 2-25-2009
That feature only becomes available when you use an iPhone to sync your addressbook with - then, all of a sudden, OS-X AddressBook supports Google sync. I've been using it for quite a while now. New e-mail addresses are popping up on my iPhone just because I mailed them with gMail - so those contacts should also exist on my OS-X AddressBook.
Still waiting for a good calendaring sync for multiple calendars - I'd like to have my OS/X Calendar synced with Google and have the calendar on my iPhone - preferably with my calendar on the startpage so I can see what's coming up (actually, just like my old Nokia N95)
paulnstone said 6:26PM on 2-25-2009
I suppose the thing that this app does extra is that it seems to allow more than one Google account.
But as others have mentioned. If single Google account-Mac sync is all you need, OS X address book will reasonably happily sync with Google. If you want to have more control, then go down the Spanning Sync route. With Spanning Sync the "one time only" emails won't get synced, and you can even restrict it to certain address book groups. And @rembert, it'll sync up your calendars as well. If you want to save $5 off Spanning Sync (disclaimer: and save me $5 as well!) then use this link to purchase it: http://spanningsync.com/?r=KQ4W7A
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ipodrulz said 6:29PM on 2-25-2009
I managed to get my Gmail account and iPhone syncing through exchange, but now my Address book-Gmail syncing stopped working. Every time I make a change on my iPhone/Gmail I have to export the .vcard and reimport it into Address book!
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paulnstone said 6:45PM on 2-25-2009
Try opening iSync and then in Preferences click on the 'Reset sync history'. This troubleshooting step often works for me when things stop syncing correctly. Hope it helps...
bsuthoff said 7:17PM on 2-25-2009
You don't need an iPhone to sync the Address Book with Google's contacts, you just need a friend with an iPhone. I just gave my girlfriend my com.apple.iPod.plist file and everything worked.
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John said 9:02PM on 2-25-2009
I've had no success with the Address Book built-in Google contact sync, even after fiddling with plist files. It just doesn't work correctly.
That having been said, $25 is $10 too much for this particular app.
As for Spanning Sync--can't you just add your Google Calendar to iCal as a remote calendar? Why the need for sync?
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Jeddeth said 10:40PM on 2-25-2009
does anything like this exist for PC users?
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nesl247 said 11:08PM on 2-25-2009
If all you need to do is sync gmail and address book, use http://soocial.com. I've been using it for a while and it works nicely.
Rembert, you can try out BusySync from http://busymac.com
And no, I'm not affiliated with either of these companies.
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Andrew said 8:12AM on 2-26-2009
You can export CSVs and VCard from Google's contacts, so the import and use-in-spreadsheet thing isn't really that great a feature. But I guess this is more about the syncing.
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Khash said 8:36AM on 2-26-2009
Windows has had this for free for sometime. Ironically it's called iContact! (www.dataload.com/icontact)
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Googaby said 1:07PM on 2-26-2009
Folks;
This is the developer of Googaby. Once I could come up for air I peeked at a few of the early postings concerning Googaby.
First Thank-You to Mike Schramm for the original post! Thanks Mike!!
So yes there is a built in sync if you have Leopard and an iPhone or you want to hack around.
However, Googaby works on Tiger and does not require an iPhone/iPodTouch.
The built in sync does NOT deal with groups, pictures, or custom labels.
Googaby does deal with all of these data elements
Please note Googaby is push only - nowhere does Googaby claim to sync! Here's our viewpoint:
If you’re a Mac user then the Address Book is where you should store your contact data.
Not only are the data elements much richer than those of Google Contacts, but by storing your contacts in the Address Book, those contacts are available for all of the rest of the goodness that Apple brings to Mac OS X (today and tomorrow in Snow Leopard).
So relax, just keep your Address Book up to date. You’ve got your Address Book handy whenever you are using your Mac, your iPhone, or your iPod Touch. Let Googaby take care of getting any changes you make sent up to your Google Contacts. If you do occasionally enter or change contacts on Google, then just open the Googaby browser and drag those Google changed contacts on top of the Address Book.
The push is only one of many features of Googaby.
Backup & Restore, no other product lets you do that! Find & Replace; linkified notes; total vCard control...
Check out the screencast for WhoPaste on the website:http://www.googaby.com/_Screencasts/Screencasts.html.
Ok thats enough from me for now.
Sorry for the long post,
Googaby
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