Rapportive is an extremely useful plug-in for Gmail (Chrome, Firefox and Safari) that pushes the online Web activity of your contacts, right into your Gmail sidebar.
Every time you click on an email Rapport will replace the Google Ads in the right sidebar with your contacts photo, occupation and links to various social networks. Anything that has been made public on the Web can be added to the Rapport. You can also add notes about the person that are visible only to you.
After I first installed Rapport I figured I was going to have to wait and see how many of my contacts signed up for it before I would begin seeing their info in my sidebar – but that’s not the case. If it’s public on the Web then it’s fair game for Rapport. When I looked up my profile on Rapport I found my photo, occupation, a link to my Twitter account, my Google profile and my LinkedIn profile. If someone is using Rapport and I send them an email then they’re going to automatically have links to places on the Web that I want them to see. If I was trying to hide something then it wouldn’t be public in the first place. Of course, once you install Rapport you have the option of going in and updating your public Rapport profile where you can choose to add or remove anything you want. All in all I think it’s a great tool that I will continue to use.
To see Rapport in action, watch the screencast below:
