[web] The Killer App - Fresh, Relevant Content

We hear so much about concerns over privacy, and yet web apps that help you broadcast your every little random thoughts and your conversations with friends to the world (or of course, the parts of the world you choose) are the most popular things of the day:

MySpace - Many have documented how teens are addicted to "Comments".

Facebook - The de-facto nemesis of MySpace, with their "News feed" and "The Wall".

Twitter - Some call it mini-blog. So popular that the servers are routinely down.

Jaiku - The de-facto nemesis of Twitter.

Plazes - Similar service but with geomap mashed up.

If I had thought a little harder about this earlier, the pattern should have been obvious long ago:

Email - The original killer app of the internet. Email delivers fresh content that is interesting to you.

RSS - The killer app that sprung up a whole new generation of professional bloggers. RSS feeds deliver fresh content that is interesting to you, by your voluntary subscription.

MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc - The killer app that made "social networking" an industry. Each has a module that delivers fresh content that is interesting to you, as generated by your group.

Looks like, a little "fresh relevant content", is all that anyone's ever asked for.