Content Matters

I've gotten a flurry of invites to Plaxo Pluse in the past week or so.
Most of these have come from distant contacts, people I may have done business with 4-6 years ago, but whom I don't consider part of my current network.

I guess that makes sense, as Plaxo's core product is built upon each user's Outlook address book and also captures the email addresses of anyone with whom you've exchanged emails in the past.  Interestingly, though, hardly any of the invites which I've received are from people to whom I'm connected via LinkedIn or Facebook.

Which brings me to the question that I posed in the title of this post - where does Plaxo Pluse fit in the world of social networks?  LinkedIn has a straightforward value proposition - I can reach the network contacts of my network for business purposes (recruitment or business development).  Facebook is more the entertainment side of social networking, with a glimmer of hope for b2b potential to be built on their platform.  The new OpenSocial will, in theory, create a platform that I can use for development of b2b social apps.  But what value will Plaxo Pulse offer?

I know what I'd like it to become.  I think that Plaxo Pulse could become the open source social graph that I've posted about previously.  Plaxo already contains my extended address book and has triggers to alert users to changes among their contacts, so it could easily serve as the sole platform for maintaining my social graph.  But, there's no obvious business model for them in doing so.  With its "lifestream", a summary feed of the various feeds of my contacts, it could become another Friendfeed, but I'm not sure that's a sustainable model either.  Or, are they simply looking to improve their valuation by positioning themselves as a social network without any real direction?

Any thoughts on where Plaxo Pulse is headed or what their positioning might be?  I'd welcome your thoughts in the comments.