I know you've also noticed it. Suddenly the people you once found in familiar places are now scattered all over the Internet like fragments of shattered glass and the only glue that can put all the pieces together is a search engine. Then you find globs of people with blogs, photo galleries, and profiles. No matter where I go there's always a requirement to register with the latest fad and I have to once again fill in all the fields with the bits of information that make up my online presence. And for what? To simply let you know that I'm still here? Why can't I just create a universal profile and let it propagate itself to every known website currently in existence? Here. I've signed up to the following...

http://twitter.com/psyphen
http://del.icio.us/psyphen
http://gavinkendall.hi5.com/
http://us.cyworld.com/gavink
http://www.bebo.com/GavinK976
http://psyphen.efx2blogs.com/
http://gavinkendall.skyrock.com/
http://gavinkendall.blogspot.com/
http://www.xanga.com/gavinkendall
http://gavinkendall.wordpress.com/
http://codewalker.stumbleupon.com/
http://slashdot.org/~gavinkendall/
http://crisistheory.spaces.live.com/
http://crisis-theory.livejournal.com/
http://psyphencodewalker.blogspot.com/
http://profiles.friendster.com/15309018
http://www.linkedin.com/in/gavinkendall
http://360.yahoo.com/lab_rat_experiments
http://psyphencodewalker.deviantart.com/
http://youtube.com/user/psyphencodewalker
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8857324@N07/
http://my.opera.com/psyphencodewalker/blog/
http://www.icq.com/people/about_me.php?uin=449820186
http://www.facebook.com/people/Gavin_Kendall/598096122
http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=1165557883384025292
http://journals.aol.com/codewalkertheory/codewalkertheory/
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=86338602

...and how am I going to manage all of this? Even if I want my message to be sent out there then how can I do it with a single click? The Web may be interconnected, but it is not yet integrated. I think it's time we defined international technical standards to guide the development of future ecosystems. Find commonality in the services people use and bridge the gaps. Everyone has a unique identifier (a nickname, a number, or an ID). Everyone has a password hash, a date of birth, and relationship links. Then you could, for example, export your profile to MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo 360, LiveJournal, YouTube, Orkut, and MSN Spaces. And post to Skyrock, WordPress, EFx2Blogs, My Opera, and DeviantArt in one easy shot.

Web 3.0 perhaps?