Is Web 2.0 really a 1950's retro thing?

Imagine the world at your doorstep. Open the door and everything you need, or might need, is there waiting for you. The bread, the milk, the paper and the groceries all sitting there ready and waiting. And you thought the days of getting milk, bread and the paper delivered were old hat and a thing of the past! NO way - this is the future!

Business and the world are still very much 'place' driven, there is a place to buy gas, another pace to buy milk and bread. We go to a place and ask for the product and then it may or may not be delivered. This is how the Internet works too. We go to the search 'place' and we ask a question in the language of that place and receive answers based on the current language dialect/algorithm. The problem with this approach is simple enough, we have to go to the search 'place' and ask the question in 'search language' and then we receive their answers to our questions .... sadly these dialect changes mean we might get strawberry yoghurt instead of skim milk and often as not we end up in blind alleys and back streets that see us calling on the red cross [close window] to help us out. Yes, the Google and Yahoo! toolbars have been with us a while but I am talking about everything, email, downloads, sports results and news feeds.

What is common about all these 'places' we visit in our daily travels is that they are neither 'my place' nor even your place. A few weeks ago I said to a colleague that I wanted my personal website, with all the links I need with a password manager, utilities like with weather, stocks, traffic and who's online. The killer application though would be a news service based on my interests and search criteria delivered on my time schedule that modified my profile based on what I read and the links I followed; add in 'Search Updates' on things I looked at yesterday or last week. And ... all this has to be crammed seamlessly and in an uncluttered fashion on to my desktop.

I have a feeling the big guys are coming to 'My Place' very soon - but please .... no vacuum cleaner or copier sales people.