While destination “social news” sites like Digg are still popular, “content tracking” is proving to be the current rage. What I mean by that is applications such as the TweetMeme “retweet” and Facebook “share” buttons that are popping up on many blogs, which allow people to easily post web pages and stories that they like on their social media profiles.

There’s benefit to the user in being able to express themselves through their content browsing habits and the ability to share content with friends and colleagues, and there’s benefit to publishers who help to push content “virally.”

What particularly interests me today is how content aggregation, social media, and content tracking applications are all intermingling around specific topics and content experiences. In my view this is the future of online content and social media because, when done right, it provides specific audiences with high value and relevant content and tools.

Browsing the webs today I noticed two great examples of this.

The first is StockTwits, which aims to serve “Real Investors. Real Ideas. Real Time.,” received an additional $3 million in funding. I’ve been following StockTwits for a while, mostly through Howard Lindzon’s blog, and think that it’s doing really cool things in bringing real time stock news and chatter to the tuned in financial community. TechCrunch notes: “Traders are clearly enamored with the product and love the constant stream of company/sector specific data.” My belief is that in the future this kind of product will expand beyond Twitter (which is of course a massive ecosystem in of itself these days) to include a spectrum of mainstream media news, blog posts, and “user generated” chatter from across the social web.

Social news company Mixx is also producing social media and content aggregation integrations worth watching. Today they announced the launch of NHL TweetMixx, that includes:

* A “Chatter” tab that keeps track of what NHL fans are
talking about

* A “Links” tab with the most up-to-date links that match your list of
search terms

* Unwrapped, abbreviated links with text, video and photos, so you
don’t have to navigate away from the NHL Tweetmixx channel

* A widget that makes it easy to share the NHL TweetMixx Channel with
other websites, your Facebook page (coming soon), MySpace page, blogs
and more! You can pick up the widget right off the NHL TweetMixx
channel. Its a must-have for any hockey blog.

While the initial implementation is a little bit clunky looking, this is a perfect example of how a specific community (rabid hockey fans) can obtain topic-specific news, links, rich media, and chatter related to their favorite sport.

While there are many other examples of cool content aggregation/social media that are pointing the way forward, I really believe that this is just the beginning of the beginning. I for one will be staying tuned!

Amazon Kindle
I’m a huge fan of the Kindle. It brings a bookstore to your fingertips, allowing you to browse and download free samples of hundreds of thousands of books. And you can subscribe to blogs and magazines, browse the web (in a clunky fashion, but still pretty cool), and add notes and bookmark all of your stuff. Most of all, it’s an extraordinary device that lets you access a galactical amount of information and entertainment. And, what’s more, the applications are endless.

Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is about way more than gaming, though you can of course certainly gorge yourself on any and all manner of gaming goodness (I’m just getting into Left 4 Dead 2 myself so that I might blast a few hundred dozen drooling flesh-eating zombie when I’m of a mood).

What’s more, the Xbox is making huge strides in becoming a central nexus of the webby home.

BlackBerry Curve
Yes, yes, I understand and am all for the glory and wonder and apps ahoy of the iPhone. But if you’re a web cultist, in my book nothing beats the BlackBerry Curve for e-mail and web browsing and texting with a fury.

Amazon Video On Demand
There’s something delightful about watching a movie on your computer or laptop screen, and I’m sure I’m not the only online media cultist who enjoys having Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince or Terminator Salvation or Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian playing on one corner of the screen while a hundred browser tabs are open in another.

A great pair of headphones
If you’re web working, you need to block out those distractions. Music is often a must, and the right headphones let you block out the screeching traffic and yelping dogs and mental sonic alien manifestations from pan dimensional climes (is that just me?).

My recommendation: the Sennheiser RS120 926 MHz Wireless RF Headphones with Charging Cradle.

Sirius XM Satellite Subscription
This’ll take care of the music and audio entertainment part.

Site Meter: premium subscription
Nothing beats Google Analytics for insane depth and detail of website and blog analytics, but nothing beats the joy of good old Site Meter for your webby stats junkies. The premium subscription allows you to track recent visitors, inbound site searches, and more to a much greater extent than the free version.

Netflix
Netflix is a great service that keeps getting better. The streaming service allows you to watch a fairly large selection (though it would be nice if it would grow over time) of movies and TV shows online and via Xbox and other devices.

Mountain Dew: And lots of it
There’s a reason why tech and web geeks love Mountain Dew: the stuff seriously kicks a huge quantity of adrenalized and over-caffeinated ass. Just the stuff to get you through a late night online gaming, blogging, or production build sesh.

Wordpress: An expert to help us figure it out
I just went through a painful site redesign. It began with a seemingly simple operation to get tagging to work again, as the feature had been broken for far too long.

Let me say this: it would not be a bad idea to start a paid service where a wordpress expert is on 24-hour call, available via IM or Skype, or something.

Okay, here’s a bonus Number 11…

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
A great edition to an all time classic game. Rock on, Rockstar Games.