Great post on TechCrunch today named Web 3.0 Will Be About Reducing the Noise—And Twhirl Isn’t Helping. Eric Schonfeld included the below screenshot from his desktop and sadly, it reminded me of mine...
Eric is right - if web 2.0 is all about creating and finding content; web 3.0 will have to be about simplifying the output.
Two examples:
1) I can't get myself excited about FriendFeed because I already have accounts elsewhere... that I use frequently. And while FriendFeed consolidates the output, it doesn't offer the same utility on the input. Furthermore, for me to change my stubborn-but-efficient internet habits, I need to be compelled with *increased* utility. And to the initial point of this post - I'm not convinced that platforms like FriendFeed simply the web.
2) I am approaching 1500 unread emails in Gmail (currenty 1471). A productive day might reduce that load by 100 or so... but I haven't been under 1,000 unread emails in months. A (positive) consequence of web 2.0 is open communication and social interaction - consolidating my online activity and communication can become overwhelming. Hopefully web 3.0 brings a killer email app... I'd pay a pretty penny for it.
