AOL and Plaxo released the terms of an agreement Wednesday that will give AOL customers more control over their personal contacts. Plaxo's services will be integrated into AOL's suite of programs and Web properties, and AOL's AIM service will be connected with Plaxos's standalone client as part of the deal.

The companies say that the aim is to assist users in keeping track of their friends, family and associates' changing contact data, while also allowing the user to select what personal data they would like to make available. The system would work similar to the way the current version of Plaxo works, and would be interoperable with users of the standalone client.

Gaining AOL as a partner is an important move for Plaxo - to date, only 5 million users are actively using the service, which launched in 2002. With the addition of AOL, Plaxo has the potential to reach 40 to 50 million AOL and AIM users.

"Together with Plaxo, we are making it easy for our members and users to create, update and maintain their e-mail address books and Buddy List features," said Chamath Palihapitiya, vice president and general manager for AIM and ICQ.

"Through this agreement, we will also enable Plaxo users to detect AIM presence within the Plaxo service and Outlook, giving them instant access to their friends, family and colleagues."

A new field will be added to allow Plaxo users to enter an AOL or AIM screen name on contact cards. Also, the Running Man icon will appear in contact lists to show whether or not the person is online.

For AOL members, the integration will be seamless from within the client. Users of AIM will have the opportunity to use Plaxo features through the addition of the Plaxo plug-in to the AIM download process.

Plaxo and AOL will not charge for the new service. A beta of the integrated technology is expected later this year.