A system and method for implementing personalization, mapping and status management in a network-based address book. A subscription function (SF) subscribes to personal contact information of specific users to personal contact card (PCC) servers and receives updates to the contact information of the subscribed user(s). The SF retrieves the personalization rule document of subscribing user and applies personalization rules to the updated contact information. The personalized contact information is handed over to a data synchronization (DS) client so that the DS client may synchronize the information with the address book of the subscribing user in a converged address book (CAB) server. The personalized contact information of the subscribed contacts is propagated to other devices or web portals. A new or existing attribute/parameter may be provided and/or used for each contact entry for use in uniquely identifying each contact. The SF may maintain a document outlining the status of entries in the address book. All of the contact entries (with all or a subset of contact information) of an address book may be synchronized between the DS client coupled with the SF and a CAB server at the beginning and later when there is a change in the address book.