For me, searching email addresses isn't the be-all-end-all of finding people I already know on Dreamwidth. I would like to be able to find people by submitting my Twitter contacts list, my Facebook contacts list, my Google contacts list, etc - via their available mechanisms where I don't have to share my password for each of those services with Dreamwidth just to import contacts. (I already trust that you guys would do this sensibly and securely; it's just startling the number of other websites that expect me to hand over my Facebook password or similar just to find my FB friends on that website. Ridic.)
Re "search by," what other services would be common enough? Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, probably Yahoo, maybe Microsoft or AOL email/IM? LJ would certainly be popular for those who choose to associate specific LJs with their DWs, though that could be another can of worms for people who can no longer prove they owned a specific LJ ...
(And seriously, the way Google does their address book thing, I am not sorting through 500 contacts just because I bought something from someone once five years ago, ugh.)
From the reverse angle, granularity re what services someone can use to find me by would be a good thing - for example, I might want to be findable by my Twitter handle, but not by my email address or Facebook username. Even if I'm willing to put this contact information on my profile for those whom I've already granted access, I might not want to be searchable by that same contact info.
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Re "search by," what other services would be common enough? Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, probably Yahoo, maybe Microsoft or AOL email/IM? LJ would certainly be popular for those who choose to associate specific LJs with their DWs, though that could be another can of worms for people who can no longer prove they owned a specific LJ ...
(And seriously, the way Google does their address book thing, I am not sorting through 500 contacts just because I bought something from someone once five years ago, ugh.)
From the reverse angle, granularity re what services someone can use to find me by would be a good thing - for example, I might want to be findable by my Twitter handle, but not by my email address or Facebook username. Even if I'm willing to put this contact information on my profile for those whom I've already granted access, I might not want to be searchable by that same contact info.