I would love a personal killer app. There are several people I would have it go and kill right now. Man, that would be sweet.

Seriously, though, is the “killer app” thinking something we can get beyond, finally? Reccommendation tools thriving in chaotic systems aren’t of the same order as, say, Excel or FinalCut Pro or other traditional “killer apps.” In many ways, the best and most successful new ideas are those that, as you say so often, model existing behaviors in relatively transparent ways. They don’t arrive with marketing blitzes, you usually can’t install them, or even really sit down to “use” them or learn them: the experiences themselves are the applications.

Clutter is going to continue online. Attention is finite. Recommendations will help useful “things” “break through”. I foresee a whole class of applications/services springing up that help cut through the clutter…not unlike del.icio.us or epinions, but perhaps more and more niche.

Anyhow, one other money point in here is you don’t try to change people, you just try to help them get done what they are already doing - better. I know we’ve had success with this.