We need a common online address book for all social networks or social sites.

And Plaxo is not the answer to all I want.

We've got one. That's what OpenID will be if we let it.

I like this idea greatly. there is hope if others can see my dreams. now how in the hell do we get the above in one site? has anyone talked to plaxo?
they have a good start on this idea!

we don't need to have it in a single site.

that's what search engines are for.

You could already form a pretty detailed directory from the Jyte API. You could build a graph from group rosters and contact rosters.

And then integrate/share/collaborate that data with any other OpenID site that has a similar API. Lot's of possibilities once there are more OpenID based sites.

Again... not needed.

All openid pages have to declare themselves as such. So search engines are the pefect tool for finding people's openids.

OpenID let's you publish whatever you like about yourself attached to that identity. But we'll probably need good browser tools before we get there.

Well there is still some usefulness that can be derived by constructing relationship graphs for sites like jyte that provide relationships between OpenID's. Not that this functionality couldn't be done by search engines.

I'm not really defending the claim though, as I'm thinking of a different context.

Well, I agree that it should not be a single site, instead it should be a protocol/extension, on top of technologies, like XMPP, OpenID, IMAP etc. so people can store their contacts, and relationship information on server, in form of hCard, XFN, and FOAF etc. The users should also be able to keep their relationship information public or private, as they want.