The use of computers and networks has changed the way people go about their day to day lives. For example, people used to maintain contact information associated with individuals (e.g., friends, relatives, etc.) in a paper address book. When contact information associated with a particular individual or entry changed, the owner of the address book typically crossed out or erased (e.g., whited-out) the old information and wrote-in the new information. In recent years, many people have turned to electronic and/or online services for maintaining address books. An electronic and/or online address book has many benefits, such as the added benefit of easy accessibility relative to a paper address book. For example, a user might access his/her online address book via a mobile device (e.g., personal digital assistant (PDA)).
Address books, irrespective of form, often contain inaccurate, duplicative, out-of-date, or incomplete data. When contact information (e.g., an email address) is used by a user to send a message (such as by email) to a contact, and that message is returned to the user as undeliverable, conventional techniques do not provide accurate, up to date contact information by which the user can send another message to the contact. When a user adds contact information to an address book, conventional solutions simply add the contact information to a data store—potentially allowing inaccurate, out-of-date, or incomplete data to exist or be added. Even if the contact information is entered correctly, the contact information may be a substantial duplicate of contact information already present in the data store. When it is determined that a conflict in contact information exists, conventional solutions fail to provide techniques for resolving the conflict. Applicants have recognized these and other shortcomings, and therefore an improved system and method are needed to update, maintain, and manage address books, contact listings, and related information and data.