as i go about my day i have several different services at my disposal to make my life easier. theres google for search and their gmail service for my mail, 30boxes for my calendar, tada-lists for my lists and flickr for photos. oh and let's not forget my favourite ma.gnolia for my bookmarks. but today during my software engineering class i came across fleck...i dont know what it is so dont ask lol but it appears to be a service that has grouped a lot of that stuff together, to make it the one central place to store, find, tag...

now its not the first to attempt this, but it IS the first to attempt it while providing the services it groups together. there are web dashboards and desktops that group ur gmail with ur flickr and ur rss news...but their use of the corresponding api and integration of all those services is only at the first level, and can only get there. they dont have the power to integrate on a much more intimate level, which is something i think a service would need to truly succeed. powerful integration is the key to a central service working. the key to it succeeding is that it needs to be intuitive, easy to use and nice to look at. a perfect example is del.icio.us vs ma.gnolia. ma.gnolia isnt fully on its feet yet not having its api out there in the wild, but when it does, it will be a true contended on the basis of intuitiveness and looks. both services are already smart and easy to use, they both essentially do the same thing but with their own twists, so in my view, it comes down to the nicety of the site for me to pick one and stick with it. and so far, even with the api out of the way and hence a lot of customiseability, ma.gnolia has won hands down, on not just looks but the other successful factors.

but i digress...about fleck, i could be wrong...there is a lot of secrecy about fleck and what it will end up providing, but so far, i reckon if they provide the services they are grouping, the service will be something that a lot of people will use. true integration, intelligent matching, being able to draw on things from other parts of the service is what will make it just work. like the iLife suite for mac os x, it should be something that people use because it is easy. its a shame i dont know more about it, but i guess it just adds to the excitement ;)