An interesting observation or two at SiliconBeat about the recent appointment of Ben Golub as Plaxo's "first CEO":

Matt Marshall

[from SiliconBeat: Plaxo gets new CEO]

This is also an noteworthy appointment given the commotion that rocked the company over the past year, and which seems to have left Plaxo treading water strategically. Note that the statement declares that Golub is Plaxo's "first CEO." We seem to remember that Sean Parker, the company's co-founder who was pushed out last year, carried that title -- though maybe it was only "interim CEO". In any case, this ends a long, long search for a CEO. Hopefully Golub will help the company realize its full potential. This could be interesting.

I met with Plaxo folks a handful of times, and never could understand where they were headed, except for the generic answer: "we will charge companies for an enterprise version." Specifically, when I poked at the potential for the enormous social network lieing dormant within their system, they more or less said "not interested." Plaxo's push toward being an online competitor to Outlook -- including calendar, to-dos, and so on -- seems either quixotic or inadequate.

Perhaps the former Verisign VP will steer the company toward more of an infrastructure role, one involving verification of identity, or the like. But the current description of the company and product is fairly tame, and does not presage anything. I will need to follow up with these guys again, when I am out there at the end of the month.

[from the press release]

Plaxo has raised nearly $20 million from Cisco Systems, Sequoia Capital, Globespan Capital Partners, Harbinger Venture Management, and angel investors including Ram Shriram and Tim Koogle. The company has developed technology that seamlessly integrates and synchronizes with Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, so that users can maintain and universally access their address book, daily calendar, tasks, and notes from any Internet-ready device.