Unfortunately, there’s no “Glue” for the social web. There’s also no happy medium between what it does – quietly observe, record, and share all your actions – and the control you have with a single, manual “like” on FriendFeed. The ideal social tool would be something in the middle. Not entirely passive, but also not requiring you to click, click, click all the time to register your opinions. What this may be, I can’t even imagine, but it would have to be something that ties the social web all together.

And why I am liking RRW’s site more and more, this from the comment section, posted by Todd:

Sounds like Ms. Perez and everyone commenting need to go back and re-read Professor Gelernter’s book Mirror Worlds…

“…Those are the goals of our lifestream. In our view of the future, users will no longer care about operating systems or computers; they’ll care about their own streams, and other people’s. I can tune in my stream wherever I am. I can shuffle other streams into mine — to the extent I have permission to use other people’s streams. My own personal stream, my electronic life story, can have other streams shuffled into it — streams belonging to groups or organizations I’m part of. And eventually I’ll have, for example, newspaper and magazine streams shuffled into my stream also. I follow my own life, and the lives of the organizations I’m part of, and the news, etc., by watching the stream flow.” – David Gelernter July 2003

Full Article on Read Write Web: The Perfect Social Tool

Wired Magazine profile of David Gelernter: Lifestreams

                        

Hulu has been the dominant destination for people interested in professional content, the shows they are used to seeing on the networks and cable channels, while historically YouTube is the spot to go for videos of cats playing pianos and lip-synching teenagers. YouTube is now moving fast into the acquisition business, cozying up the Studios who have sued them, because they have realized that they can’t monetize videos of adults doing the Supa’ Man in their apartment. Unfortunately, the content the studios are providing YouTube is mostly very old movies that have no chance of being sold as DVDs. This is where Hulu continues to win. By providing key shows like The Colbert Report, 30 Rock and The Simpsons in full online, Hulu has set it self up as the go to destination for humor craving laptoppers looking for prime time entertainment. It doesn’t hurt that Hulu’s UI is slick and easy to navigate.

Right now, advertisers feel more safe aligning their brands with Hulu because they know the content.
It will be interesting to see what other players like Joost, Veoh, and Bebo can add to the fray. The key will be in the acquisitions: there is a very small market of people excited to Critters 3 on their computer. The companies that will thrive will be the ones who can lock up major shows while also providing high quality exclusive programming of their own. Right now, Hulu has the early lead and a strong stable of hit shows that will continue to help increase its share, but YouTube has the Google money behind it to make this an intriguing battle for internet video supremacy.