My no 1 web wish for 2009: one microblog platform to rule them all

Predicting the future is popular around the web, which is why I won't try it myself. Instead I will write about what I'm hoping for regarding communications and technology on the web during 2009. Yes, that's right - no trends, only what I'm wishing for.

Wish nr 1: One micro-blog platform to rule them all

At the moment I use two micro-blog platforms - Twitter and Jaiku. For Swedes, Jaiku has been used to communicate in Swedish while Twitter has been for English, but keeping up with both is hard and simply unproductive. For 2009 I'm wishing for one of these platforms displaying the following functions or services:

Desktop app
Comments
Feeds syndication

According to HubSpot, Twitter grew 600% in the last 12 months with 5-10,000 new account registrations every day. I haven't seen any growth numbers for Google-owned Jaiku, but my guess is they are far from those of Twitter. This is a shame, since Jaiku is a much better platform with both comments and RSS feed syndication built in (Jeremiah Owyang mentions Twitter's problems when describing why he's on a Twitter hiatus).

But while Jaiku has the functions, Twitter has the users. And hosting the party with the most visitors is of course all that matters – people want to be there. For example, in the last couple of months, parts of the Swedish micro-blogosphere has left Jaiku for Twitter. Twitter also has the third party tools, such as the desktop app TweetDeck, and statistics/information services, such as Twittercounter, Twitter Search and Twubble.

In conclusion: Twitter is wiping the floor with Jaiku, simply because Google is letting them. Open source alternative, Identi.ca, has pros such as scalability and openness, but right now their chances of beating Twitter look slim.

Slim are also my chances of being able to use one micro-blogging service with all the above mentioned functions. But it is my first wish for 2009. Stay tuned for number two and three!

PS: Don't forget to follow me on Twitter and Jaiku.