Just what we need: another thing for operators and handset firms to fight about.
Social network aggregation is a wonderful idea.
One place from which you can access Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and your tribe of IM buddies, rather than a bunch of separate applications. A great thing on the desktop, and an even greater thing on mobile.
The question is, who'll help you do it? There's a battle brewing, and would you believe it's shaping up as operators versus handset makers? With third-party app developers thrown in for added spice.
Start with the leaked information this weekend about Vodafone 360, which will apparently replace the Vodafone Live portal with an app store platform, but also social network aggregation features, allowing users to access Facebook and Twitter from one place.
Think also of Orange's recently-launched Social Life service, which brings Facebook, MySpace and Bebo together under one mobile web roof, letting users interact with all three from one place.
Smaller operators, meanwhile, are working with companies like Synchronica, whose Mobile Gateway product now supports social networking as well as push email, with a strong focus on emerging markets.
Talking of which, Microsoft's OneApp service also aggregates Facebook and Twitter (plus its own Windows Live Messenger) for feature phones in the developing world.
But then there's the handset guys. The thrust of Motorola's well-received new MOTOBLUR Android UI is social networking aggregation, bringing in feeds from the various social media services right to the homescreen of the Dext smartphone (and presumably future models too).
Nokia, too, is working on pulling users' social networking feeds into its handsets, while it's the raison d'etre of INQ, which makes branded social handsets for carriers.
And then there's the app developers - particularly ShoZu, which has come a long way from its start as a photo-uploading app, and recently beefed up its social features. Increasingly, if smartphone owners want to aggregate their social media presences, there'll be an app for that. Or 132 apps for that.
Oh, and the social networks are even starting to aggregate each other. As I write this, MySpace has just announced a new feature to synchronise its users' profiles with their Twitter feeds.
All this activity shows that there's a consumer demand for this kind of aggregation - or at least that the brainy future-facing people at these various mobile companies think there is. But it also shows that they're going to have to battle each other to win the space.
You might wonder whether competing to be the service or app that consumers pick to tell the world that their cat just fell off the sofa is worth all this trouble, but actually it's about more than that.
It's about who controls - or at least controls the distribution pipe - for people's digital social lives. A potentially big deal if consumers' loyalty to individual handset makers or operators wanes in the coming years.
What's missing right now from the operators and handset makers is a cross-platform aspect. Can users access Vodafone 360 or MOTOBLUR from their desktop? Those operators who also offer fixed-line broadband could have an advantage here, in time.
But then this is where the app-makers may have a head-start: think of something like Seesmic Desktop, which people use on their PC to aggregate and manage Twitter and Facebook, and which is working on an iPhone app. Rival Tweetdeck already has one, albeit purely Twitter-focused (for now).
So the Battle For Mobile Social Aggregation might not sound like a candidate for the history books, but it could become a significant part of the way our industry evolves in the coming years.
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