I am consumed by feeds. RSS, social network updates and Twitter provide an unprecedented ability to tune in to content and conversations and catch what is being buzzed about almost instantly.
Services like Ping.fm let you update several feeds from one place. FriendFeed gives you a way to monitor the various streams of friends and influencers.
I tell my teams here that if you have the (if not quite God-given, OK Twitter-given) gift to tune into what the top influencers are buzzing about from moment to moment, why would you not do that? And indeed we are, in increasing numbers, and finding that the technology can be another way to understand and engage with those who have reach into audiences of interest.
Where is all of this going? Will people tire of all this chatter? Will they at some point just stop pinging, Tweeting, etc.?
One thing is for sure, I am more convinced than ever that Web 3.0 = social Web, forget the semantic Web, what is really exciting is the ability to crowdsource, make connections and search and manage knowledge (the semantic Web crowd will say they do the latter but we are still waiting for a way to do this that does not involve a forklift upgrade effort).
I am still looking for a better way to organize all this information. Please comment here if you know of any console that can let me define a rich set of rules, tailor what is presented and how, and alert me to what is important.
I feel some of the most exciting work will be in the area of search and presentation of Web-based information, this blog has covered some of the newer entrants. The search incumbents should be afraid, very afraid, and are hopefully hard at work on the challenge too.
