Social Web Tools – Mass Confusion

Confused by the mass of internet social media tools? I am and I read, interact and write about this stuff everyday. Why do we need all this crap? Today I am feeling particularly overwhelmed to the point of web paralysis (deer in headlights).

Jaiku, Pownce, Plurk, Twitter and a other similar social communication tools are confusing. I only want to deal with one or at most two platforms. Which one will win the long range battle and remain the dominant player? Without a doubt, Twitter is the current leader but I think it lacks certain features that might make it really appealing.

I would like to see the following features or changes to improve its usability :

1. Categorization of Contacts and Followers – I following certain individuals because I want to hear what they are saying and doing but for others I want to share certain topics but not all of them. Provide groups or categories and allow people to put themselves into a group or allow me to organize them.
2. Noise Level Adjustment – Some people, although I am interested in them, are just too noisy. Chris Brogan is a social media leader but following him on twitter is a full time job. Perhaps a daily digest feature or something similar would be useful.
3. Universal Client and Standards – This is a problem for many communication platforms, including email and IM. I would like to have a universal twitter, plurk, pownce etc.. client.
4. Intelligent Broadcasting – I hate receiving the same information more than once. I need a way to ensure that a twitter follower, that is also on plurk or pownce, does not receive the same information twice.

Summary

I could probably keep going here but I wont. Instead I would ask you to provide me with your view on the subject. Your comments are welcome.