Names are far from unique identifiers, so people created standards for uniquely identifying people, you now want to create another one well guess what: http://

Names are far from unique identifiers, so people created standards for uniquely identifying people, you now want to create another one well guess what: http://xkcd.com/927/ http://xkcd.com/927/ The reality is it's not a technical problem in need of a better standard. If you meet someone at a party they can give you a phone number, an email address, a Facebook act, a linked in act, IM, skype, etc etc. But the universal system is simply Identifier:Service and we already have that and it works really well. Some of these come bundled with other Identifier:Service groupings, but just because I met you at a party does not mean I want to give out all of them. Backing up your address book is a side issue with simple direct solutions that are up to you to implement.