It surprises me that Google has not implemented LDAP for gmail. It would be really handy to look up contacts from a company directory without having to leave gmail. Accessing your gmail contacts outside of gmail for use in other programs also might be useful.
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If you have an LDAP server that is open to the public, you should fire whoever is in charge of network security and hire somebody new. Of course, to access a closed server, you would need to supply your company’s username and password to GMmail. I don’t care how not evil Google is, I’m not doing it.
I could see the benefit from Google offering LDAP to browse your own contacts, but that would undermine the purpose of GMail, which is to drive people to the interface. Same reasons they haven’t implemented IMAP, etc. They make money off the ads in the UI. They aren’t going to cut that off.
Hmm, I do see the problem. Yep, I suppose that is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
I was just thinking why this did not exist. I think direct implementation or some sort of surrogate extensible syndicated contact management system is essential for Google’s mission statement. It would also be hugely convenient for everyone. Lets hope they move to this sort of model soon.
Does anyone know anything about using that site that Ben Golub mentioned? For instance can it be arrogated within it’s current data structure.
While Google does not implement an LDAP server, we can use this alternative:
http://gcaldaemon.sourceforge.net/usage4.html#setup
I have not tested yet, but it seems work.
Gmail IMAP support is now implemented. I would bet LDAP is nearly here.
GCalDaemon stopped working after the launch of the new UI (probably breaks the reading).
I wait for “original” Gmail LDAP - I think they will crack into it, as they did with IMAP.
Companies who wish to migrate some but not all of their people to GAPE, need there to be able to reliably populated their contacts with LDAP. Simple as that. Hello google? Many places (including Google’s target .edu model) do leave their LDAP servers open to these kinds of queries.
They are probably working on it. Click on this link (http://docs.google.com/data/contacts) while logged in to get an xml list of your contacts sorted by how often you email them or they email you.