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Tell HN: I can't find a fix. If you build it, I will be a paying customer.

38 pointsvrikhter31 comments

I want a better way to manage lists of contacts within gmail.

Problem: I have different groups of friends (as do you) based on what they do, how we're related, where we've met, etc. I enjoy sending articles to these people based on their interest. I reach out to them to get advice relative to their domain expertise. I get in contact with them when traveling to their city to get to together. Lists of these people may look like this:

Atlanta natives, Georgia Tech alums, Consulting folks, Entrepreneurs, Budding Entrepreneurs, BD Guys/Gals, CTO/VP of Engr, SXSW (Meet at SXSW), VCs/Angels, Customers, etc..

Managing this through Gmail Contacts is a pain and I have given up. Generally I remember some of these lists of people (note: they don't usually include that many - maybe 10-15 each). But a lot of times I end up going through a chunk of my list to jolt my memory on whom I need to ping about something.

Solution: I want a simple chrome/gmail extension that allows me to enter an individuals email address and quickly tag them into a couple lists. Then as a MVP, let me quickly bring up the tag, see the people in it and copy their email addresses into the To/CC/BCC box.

Want to look at an app that did a kick ass job of bringing in a simple solution to Gmail: Taskforceapp.com. Something like that would make me happy.

Bonus: reminding me to ping people every x months. Etacts did this and I loved it...but that's gone.

How much would I pay? Definitely $20/month to start.

You're looking for a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) with a Gmail extention (or a mailing list tool that's almost a CRM)

Something like https://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/viewListing?pr...

or https://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/viewListing?pr...

or https://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/viewListing?pr...

You forgot to include information so the OP could pay you for your research time.

I'm actually researching CRM's right now. I copy pasted 4 links out of some searches I'd been doing.

My particular requirements:

  Works well on iOS (ipad and iPhone)

  Works well with GoogleApps for your domain

  If it integrates with Highrise, it supports multiple highrise accounts.

  Does not have history of f-ing up calendars

Let me know if you know of something that fits these mr snark

I'll check out insight.ly as an option. I'm not really interested in a full blown CRM. This is just a simple way to manage lists/groups of people in my contacts. I don't need to make notes on them, have projects, or follow up based on a 'sales cycle'. Just want to group them together by a few tags :)

So I don't need to do 99% of what photoshop does. But I paid several hundred dollars to buy it so I can cutup photoshop PSDs without making mistakes caused by programs not properly rendering things.

I'm figuring the same thing can work for you and your email addresses. While it would certainly be nice for something to do ONLY what you need now and the unknown other 3 things you need, chances are a bigger system does what you need a few other things you'd like to do anyhow.

You're definitely correct, I have done that with other product as well. I'll keep my eye on it, but my asking was really focused on something as simple as taskforce, but for lists of people. Could I have used Basecamp and just focused on the task mgt part of it? Sure, but I really like taskforce because it's simple enough to just deal with my tasks right inside of gmail.

Hmm maybe Im not understanding what you are asking for, but doesn't gmail do this via contact groups? I checked my account and it really does exist

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=30970

This is a pain and not really within gmail. I create google groups for each group and add the emails from my contact list to the google group. Sending an email to the group sends to all. This is hacky and not very scalable, but if you just have a few groups it works ok.

This is also not within gmail, but let's you send via gmail. If you sync your gmail contacts to outlook you can then create groups, outbound emails will obviously go through gmail

Hi there.

Xobni for Gmail is in Beta right now and although it does not do exactly what you are asking, Xobni does have a recommendation engine that does help to solve this pain point. Once you start an email to someone, Xobni will identify and recommend the people you often email with that person - so, although there is no specific list you can select, Xobni takes a lot of the guesswork out for you.

If you are interested in getting into the Xobni for Gmail beta, go here - http://www.xobni.com/waitinglist/gmailbeta/ and enter the following media code for priority access: XOBNI-BRITTON

Britton, thanks for the offer. I tried using the code, but because I signed up for the beta a couple weeks ago it won't let me use your access code. Can you help you?

I think the new startup Tout (toutapp.com) is working to develop something like this.

HN discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2361409

In the current iteration, it seeks to fill the middle ground between an email client and a full-blown email marketing application.

I'm sure Gmail integration is a natural addition to the product over the next few months...

Interesting product...I've actually regularly had this problem as well. Gmail integration for me is a must. It doesn't solve my problem above, which is tagging people into groups/lists. I'll keep my eye on it and maybe it'll develop over time.

Hi Vladik - I'm working on a product that is somewhat related to this. Could I email you about it? Or shoot me an email: justin.burdett AT gmail.com

Not sure if we're going to directly solve your problem at the start, but I'd love your input.

absolutely. vladik dot rikhter at gmail

You may want to take a look at "Don't forget Bob" in gmail labs. Once you pick some email recipients, Gmail suggests more people you might want to include based on the groups of people you email most often.

I like nudgemail.com for the contact reminders/nudges and a new service called Receivd for managing lists of people and sharing files/content with those lists.

I've been using Boomerang for Gmail instead of Nudge (didn't hear of Nudge until recently). Receivd seems to have a high focus on sharing files/content, which I don't particularly need.

I bet rapportive could easily find a way to implement this.

That would be awesome! I love rapportive and have already wrapped it around my Google contacts.

I'd also like such a plugin / browser extension. For the time being I use contact groups. When I type the name of a group gmail expands the email addresses.

That's what I've been using as well...just too cumbersome.

Highrise by 37signals? Bit higher price, but definitely a quality product.

EDIT: It doesn't work inside gmail obviously.

I like Highrise, but like you said it doesn't work in Gmail. It's also an entire CRM, which I don't really need. Just want a better way to manage lists.

I'm working on something vaugely similar at http://Stronico.com

The tagging part is what I'm looking for. Everything else in the application doesn't fill any immediate needs for me.

I'm not quite sure, but does plaxo not do some of there things? I know they made some updates recently.

Maybe? I stopped Plaxo a couple years ago after not really understanding the purpose of the product.

www.fiesta.cc , my buddy's startup. It's not quite the solution you describe, but it mostly solves the problem.

That's actually pretty good. Anyway to get rid of the group@fiesta.cc email address?

Hi, fiesta.cc is me - working on the white-labeling stuff as we speak. Shoot me an email if you think you might want to try it. mike [at] corp.fiesta.cc

he's offering any subdomain if you pay (e.g. lists.vrikhter.com), tweet @fiestacc

still fleshing that out, but will probably be free for smaller use cases. also, it's @fiesta :)

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