For as long as I have been alive (all of 27 years) business cards have been a very popular way to solidify a contact. Printing of the cards has gotten to be more quality for less money and so everyone and their brother has a business card. When I was real young it was a phone number and maybe a fax number if the office was real up and coming on the technology scene. Now technology has taken over business to the point that it is a valid question whether or not there will be business cards in the future.

Are they really necessary? Well at one time yes it was a great idea and people actually held on to a business card and used them as a contact card that they would pop in their rolodex. Now no one has a rolodex and it would take just as long to look someone up in the online yellow pages than it would to flip to the right rolodex file to look up a name and a number. So basically I think that they are out as we know them.

That is not to say that they are out for good. No technology has a way of finding a way to stick around. Now we are seeing business cards in the form of mini cd-roms that not only have the name and address but also a personal introduction to the person and work of the giver as well as a overview of the company for which the donor works. This can be as simple as a pdf file or as complicated as an animated tour with interactive features.

We are also seeing things like an electronic business card that can be sent to one another with wireless connections between portable digital devices. This is becoming the thing to do and the business card can automatically update a contacts list in that person's default email software.

So the little paper business card that used to be all the rage is phasing out but the concept is not dead. Rather it is taking on a life of its own with technology and ingenuity being its vitality. Who knows maybe in the not too distant future we will have holographic business cards that can be sent from the chips in our wrist that also contain all the other information that we used in our daily life including our shopping lists and bank account information.