Let us follow a conversation.
It starts and grows on Twitter until some people decide 140 character replies aren't really working anymore. They take it to their blogs and the conversation continues in the comments (possibly through Disqus).
Some have integrated their Twitter status messages with their Facebook accounts. The conversation continues in the comments to those status messages, spreading through the social network via the ubiquitous share button.
Some of those who blogged have Friendfeed pulling their RSS feeds. The conversation has taken news turns in the lively comment threads there. Some of those who only read the blog posts have shared the posts on their FF pages and have their own conversations going.
What's more? Many of the people involved in this conversation have their Twitter accounts, their blogs, AND their Disqus accounts plugged in to Friendfeed. Every single quip and retort is rendered commentable. The conversation explodes into a thousand pieces!
I am just skimming the surface of this issue. There are a million other ways the conversation might take. Forget following it, even making sense of it is a far cry. Need I remind you of the existence of those who are eager to label the social web 'noisy'. Can we really blame them?
Expecting a single web service to solve this problem isn't practical. While the limitations of one service may not be there in another, there will soon emerge a set of needs that force the user to look beyond his favourite online hangout.
This is the time when I give you an answer. Unfortunately, I have none. I was hoping you could help me out on this. What do you think we need to better follow the conversation?
