Google Contacts started life as a part of Gmail but has recently been given more prominence (and its own page independant of Gmail). I wanted to see what its limits were so I decided to import 20,000 names and addresses to see how it faired as a mailing list.

Google say that imports are limited to 3000 per import file. For my first go at importing I created a CSV file in Excel with just 3000 contacts using the following field names:

Name,E-mail,Section 1 – Description,Section 1 – Address,Section 1 – Phone

A typical contact line looked like:

“John Smith”, j.smith@example.com,Other,”1 High Street, London, W1″,”010101010101″

De-duplication

The first message I saw after import was:

20 contacts from the uploaded file have been merged with contacts already in your Google address book. Details…

Clicking “Details…” revealed a list of email addresses.

The second message was:

67 contacts have been ignored because they were duplicates of other contacts. Details…

Again clicking “Details…” expanded to show a list of email addresses.

Lastly:

23 contacts have been ignored because they did not have a name or email.

Strange as I have imported some contacts with no email or name. They show the phone number in listings of contacts. They are easy to spot as they are always top of the list as the start with numbers not letters.

What counts as a duplicate? Same email? Same name? Same address? Will all John Smiths be merged in to one giant contact with various addresses? I haven’t had a chance to find out but will amend this post if anything comes to light.

• Currently there’s a 10,000 maximum number of contacts limit (tested on a standard Gmail account)
• Seem to require a non-blank name or email address to be added (phone number is showed in no name or email address available)
• If you don’t use “Section – xxx” style fields for address and don’t have a “Notes” field in your import file then other fields are added to Notes e.g. “address: 21 HIGH ST…” [I saw this once but haven't been able to repeat it since]
• To split address lines use add CR/LF in a program such as the superb free Notepad++

Pros:

• Searching: Fast even with 10,000 coontacts. Searches as you type
• Custom fields: (name/value pairs). These can be different for each contact and fields are not remembered. Only accessable from webpage and API not by importing
• Map: Addresses have a “Map” link that shows address in Google Maps
• URL: Use standalone google.com/contacts or click Contacts in Gmail
• Photo: Can add a photo gif/jpg/png or via file/URL/associated Picasa account
• Contact groups: Can be used like tags or labels
• Merging: Easy to merge two or more contacts. No undo but it shows the “Proposed changes” before finalising at which point you can cancel

Cons:

• Name and Adress are both stored in one field and not split first/middle/last. This will possible soon and the ability is already in the API
• Addresses suffer the same problem as names: just one field for the whole address
• Doesn’t check for valid emails on import (it does if you enter an email on the contacts web page). I have one with two dots e.g. user@example..com
• No search operators, can’t search for smith -john (i.e. show all smiths excluding ones with john)
• No way to flip though contacts using keyboard shortcuts, you have to use the mouse
• See note on custom fields above
• No way to set a contacts template

Using as a mailing list e.g.  for mailmerge etc.

So is Google Contacts a suitable place for mailing lists? What about in a small company or group? Well the limit of 10,000 contacts may put some off as will the fact that shared contacts are only available to Google Apps Premium and Education Edition customers.

• Has potential and syncs to mobile devices such as phones
• Currently would need to export in order to print labels or do any database work such as de-duplicating records.
• Google Docs mailmerge is now possible using Google Apps Script (only for Google Apps users). See this post that explains how to send customised emails from Google Docs.

Conclusion

Google Contacts has improved a lot recently and is now worth considering as your main contact store. It has fast searching, plenty of fields, space for notes. One of the most important features for me is that it can be synced to my phone (along with Google Calendar). On the negative side there are currently just “name” and “address” fields – i.e. no surname, no city fields etc. Other niggles are the 10,000 record limit. Lastly it would be good to be able to share contacts – something only available in Premium/Education editions of Google Apps.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009 at 9:42 am in categories: Google Apps Script, Tools. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.