Last week we talked about the history of the business card and how it has evolved from a personal “calling card” to one primarily for business.

But in this digital age, when much of our personal and professional information is just a Google search away from the name on our business cards, it makes sense for business cards to present more than just a few bare facts. That’s not to say you should link a Google Search of you to your business cards, you should have the power to control what you share with others in an attractive and organized way. With about.me and Intro, we’re making that possible.

Imagine a scenario when you’d use your business cards.  You’re taking a business trip to a conference like the Web Summit, which Tony Conrad attended in Dublin in November. There you meet June Carmody, who you have a lot in common with. You hand her your business card but realize that it has your U.S. number on it which she won’t use anyway since you’re abroad. Crossing out your number looks messy so you hand her the card as is, with a couple of fields of useless information like your old job title and that phone number she’ll never use.

Or maybe you meet Cory Levy instead. He’s based in San Francisco, just like you and you want to give him your phone number and email address. But your job title is still out of date and you go through explaining that it’s an old business card and to ignore some of the information on there looking none to professional in the process.

Finally, there are those people you meet that you think you might like to keep in touch with but don’t feel like giving all your information to. After all, your phone number is both your work and home number and you try to limit who you share it with.  So you either reluctantly hand them your card or scrawl your name and email address on a scrap of paper that you hope they don’t loose.

In all of these methods there’s a lack of control over what you share and a certain lack of professionalism. And we built about.me and Intro to solve these problems. We built it to bring the business card into the digital world we now live in so you can control what information you give out and stay professional with up to date information. If you haven’t, go ahead and check out Intro (coming soon for Android!) to see how you can share exactly what you want, when you want and with who you want.