Commvergence - the future of digital communications

No 'commvergence' is not a typo.

I've been struggling for some time to keep track of my various email addresses (I have 4), social networks (Linked-In, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Twitter), communication tools (Skype, Messenger), RSS feeds & mobile (SMS, email and so on). And that's not to mention the volume of emails, feeds, Tweets, pokes and messages that each channel produces.

Now I know that because I work in the industry I am bound to sign-up and try-out more channels/routes than most consumers. However managing digital communications is a growing problem for consumers. A recent survey from Emailvision has found that women are half as likely as men to read the email newsletters they receive and are more prone to cancel their subscriptions citing 'cluttered inboxes'.

So how will consumers start to manage? That's where I think that 'commvergence' will play a part: tools and service that bring together and unite different digital communications.

iGoogle goes someway in starting this. Flock and Swimwire are amongst a group of tools that allow users to aggregate their social networking sites. But other tools such as Fuser and Orgoo aim to provide access to all your email and social network accounts in one place. Orgoo is not yet in public beta, but Fuser is up an running and provides the familiarity of a web-based email interface to manage messages and contacts. It's not perfect, but it's a start.

What's clear is that it won't be long before Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! get involved. Because a one-stop-shop for online communications is a huge consumer need and will become a key traffic driver (and hence revenue) for those properties.