Om Malik either does not know about "microformats" especially hCard (which is unlikely) or has willingly chosen to ignore it in his article (see excerpt at the end). The solution to directory problem is not to have a single provider like google or Plaxo collate all information about a person, but to allow any service to syndicate the same standard contact information. The solution is the standard microformat for storing your contact details from email, to phone number/ postal address to social network profile info. Once all existing platforms which store profile info - blogs, email services, eGroups, specialized networks (forums/ batchmates.com etc.) - start using the same format, it will be possible for any service to access hCard info from any other service (provided privacy is taken care of by allowing users the right to share/ not share). Also, this will make it possible for you to store your hCard info at only on of the websites you use (say your personal blog or social...