Online Contact Cards: Future Networking

Circulating the paper business/visiting cards at all meetings and gatherings is s much last century now. We agree its still famous among quite a few, OK let us be true to ourselves; the physical business/visiting cards are in good circulation at all meetings and we love carrying them, in our wallets and in our card holders!
The paradigm has started to shift though. We see people moving from social gatherings to social platforms and from paper contact cards to online cards. In case you missed one of our older post, we mentioned our online business card that we created on ApnaCircle.com portal. 

Here is a look for you, on your left is our Business card that we created on ApnaCircle.com. And what better example to pick since we already have one here.
As you can see, the card has provisions for:

• Your chosen name
• Your profile pic
• Your profile title that you choose
• Your business email id
• Your contact/business address
• Links to your websites/blogs/profiles
• Your Instant Messaging handles
• Some free fields (our Mission and Punchline nicely sitting there)

You can always edit these details as and when you like. Plus you may add more instant messaging handles from a list of around six options as you see in the image here. You can see in our online card that we have added our Gtalk handle. Suits fine for us!!
So much so for the view of the business card. Lets have a look at the page where you can create the card itself and can edit its details anytime you want. 

As you can see this page has all the fields that we have mentioned before. Also, as you may already have seen; you can preview the card on your left side as you fill in the details. 
For most of the fields you are provided with the 'Add' option so you can add more business email ids or contact numbers. The form is pretty much strict with what it provides you to create/fill, but what we found good and a relaxing option was that there are a few Open Fields where you can put some name/value pairs. For us we added our 'Mission' and 'Punchline' details. If you would want to add some of your specials, this is the place for you!

At the bottom of the create card form page detailed above, you will find the option to share the newly created/edited business card with either all of your contacts or a few ones chosen by you as shown in the image here.
The button at the bottom however reads 'Save all', we don't know why!!
In case, however, you are not interested in sharing the card just now; you may wait for a later time. Like, adding someone as your contact or accepting a contact request that is waiting for your reaction. Both the actions have a check-box where you may choose to share either your business or your personal card or both. And since we mentioned the Personal cards, we may also mention that the same features apply to your personal card as well; offered alongside the business card feature. The context, as obvious from the names, is different. So you may share the business card with your colleagues and business clients/partners, while your personal card with your close friends and family.

One of our colleague, just in time, pointed out that from the address book (where y manage your contacts on the site) you could view any of your contacts business or personal card (provided that contact shared their' with you) right there. What's more, as pointed out on the image at left, is that you could download the virtual card in a .vcf format. Very beneficial if you want to import the contact details in your outlook for example. And this is not it, with the 'Add more information' link (pointed out as well in the image), you could add more details to the card like address, phone, email etc.. Awesome, isn't it?
So what are you waiting for guys, try it out now!


Our Views
The feature may not be unique, but from a perspective that a professional portal has this for its users, is really a good idea. The virtual world and some virtual perks to go with it. The social and professional networks are a place where millions share billion things and their expertise, irrespective of the geographical location they may be in. So, looking at this option where you are able to float your contact cards (business or personal), is really a very beneficial scenario or a feature as you may like to call it! Thumbs up from our side on this one!
Just one point to mention out on the label of the button on the share card part, we think it would make more sense to make it read "Share Now" instead of  "Save all" !! We aren't saving any data anyway. Hope like the inconsistency in the Groups label names, ApnaCircle will be hearing us here as well :).
Also, it would have been a gem of a feature if there was an option to get the cards printed. And ApnaCircle could have their own logo as a watermark. But the printing idea would surely benefit the user more, just for the sake of fun ;)
We sure hope you try the feature once and let us know how was it! Share your cards here in the comments section and we will be happy to look in to them. Let's see who has what details, especially the Open Field items! Happy Crunching then!!