[DanielBMarkham]

I tend to agree that while people want a lot of things in the world, we're just not wired to handle, say, interacting with 50 web applications for our needs. I think if you really studied it, people probably have 5-15 web apps they use on a regular basis, with maybe another 5-15 they use now-and-then. That's it.

I don't think this number is due to a lack of web applications to fit people's needs, but limitations of the wetware itself. This implies that there is a biological driver for web application consolidation. It also implies that whatever your app, you're already competing for "web app" time in the user's mind with some other site, even if it is completely unrelated. Futhermore, it implies that great non-consolidated apps actually cause some harm, assuming they take people away from other sites that are providing value to them.

Pure speculation on my part, of course. I just know that while I've seen a boatload of crazy-cool web applications, the number I use is fairly static -- I just shuffle some in and out every now and then.

Great question!