Personal Info Cloud...

Hey Boris... not sure if this is what you're talking about, but some of what I've been wanting to see (for a while now) includes a way of aggregating information and/or search results "out there" (i.e. my external personas, communities and interests) and everything "in here" (i.e. data indexed on my workstations/laptops/PDAs/SmartPhones, etc.) together.

I still think Google's Desktop Search client is in the best position to accomplish this on the desktop (of course the MSN equivalent could also do this... I'm just not as big a fan...)

I believe the cloud metaphor may not be perfect, but brings us to a closer user experience and representation of how (I'm guessing) most people's minds work (rather than ordered/unordered lists)... especially if clouds become a lot more interactive (like a mind map), and can either hold a "context" (i.e. me, my search terms or a given topic) or allow for "shifting context"*.

I know of a few guys (Simon in particular) that are convinced that the cloud metaphor could be used for almost every user experience scenario out there.  I think it would take some time to ween off conventional user interface patterns, but Microsoft did it when they introduced the new Office System sans the "File, Edit, View, Tools, Help" standard menu system (for most of the apps anyway).

... anyway, just a thought.

* Don't know how to describe what I'm thinking, but similar to "slowly changing dimensions" in the "ETL" world...