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As I’m getting over a mild case of the black plague, I’m in more of a contemplative state of mind. So, with that, I thought I’d go over something that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately: having everything in one place. I will warn you: this is going to be one of those rambling posts that doesn’t end in anything resembling an answer or a conclusion. But you’re used to that.

• Some people do their banking in a grocery store
• You can get coffee in a bookstore
• You can buy Pizza Hut at Target

You see where I’m going here.

The argument goes like this: We have less time to do more things. There’s always more to do than time to do it in, so we try to consolidate. Multitask. Kill two birds with one supermarket.

The same goes for our time doing things online. We want to participate in social networks, write, get recommendations, watch videos, etc., and with new things coming out every day, it becomes overwhelming. We just can’t keep up.

But consolidation and “one stop shopping” are not the same in both the physical and virtual worlds.

Let’s go back to brick and mortar land. How often do you do all your shopping in a department store? Compare that to how often you do your shopping in ultra-specialized stores in a mall. Why is that?

The same goes for online tasks. If I want to write a blog post, I go to my blog. If I want to write a twitter message, I go to twitter. If I want to do banking, well, you get it.

To be honest, having everything in separate locations can be an enormous pain. Having one central control panel for all my stuff would be incredibly useful. I’d love to have something that lets me access all the services I use from one interface.

But so far, that interface does not exist. Many have tried, but I’ve seen a lot of department stores and zero malls.

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