Drowning in Awesomeness

The double-edged sword that comes with keeping abreast of all the latest
developments in technology means that we're always aware of the latest and
greatest applications and services to try...but it also means that we've tried
all of them. Unlike the average user, who doesn't even bother creating
a Facebook profile until several of their friends cajole them into doing so,
technology early adopters are the first to sign up and create profiles on every
service that launches.

The Battle of the Lifestreams

There's MyBlogLog's
lifestream, FriendFeed, Lifestream.fm and even Facebook's
attempt at lifestreaming, which involves integrating a handful of services
into users' Mini-Feeds and News Feeds. Too much? You
betcha. Although FriendFeed is getting buzz, even it doesn't offer a way to
really filter the info it displays. Sure, the "filter
by service" Greasemonkey script can help narrow down content and the Friends & Groups script can help sort
your friends into groups of your own choosing, but we shouldn't have to rely on
a Firefox
add-on to make our apps work for us. And while FriendFeed may be one service
(besides Twitter, of course) that internet
addicts can't live without, it still has a way to go to cross over to the
mainstream user, especially if Facebook starts offering similar integration.

The Battle of the Mobile Social Networks

This one will really surprise those not following the mobile
networking space closely. When researching mobile network up-and-comer Brightkite,
I stumbled upon a slew of mobile networks already competing in the space.

There's MocoSpace, Friendstribe, Hobnobster, Dodgeball, Zyb, mig33, Mobiluck, MeetMoi, JuiceCaster, Loopnote, Rabble, Wadja, Treemo, groovr, flagr, Lime
Juice, Loopt, and Next2Friends, to name just a few. There are,
in fact, many, many more. Some focus on texting, some on sharing images, others
on geo-tagging, and others on traditional social networking. They're all acting
like the mobile web is the wild west and if they can just get there first they
might have a shot at winning.

However, who wants to bet that the mobile networks everyone ends up using are
the ones who aren't pretending that the mobile web is some different web
altogether? Even more likely winners are the mobile versions of MySpace and Facebook, where all your friends already
exist.