I'd like some of what John Battelle is smoking late nights.
Searchstreams are what Battelle term the first class traces of focused searchers. The trail of links, queries, bookmarks, etc. that people generate on their way to actually finding information that they want. Tying back to Bush's Memex, Battelle makes a persuasive argument that embryonic searchstreams are already here, and that they will be a vital mechanism for making sense of information in the future.
I think he's right, but it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. In an ideal world, browsers would expose searchstream creation, editing, management, publication, and aggregation features. Bang! Cambrian explosion.
Web browser advancement is stuck though. So now you see bits and pieces of searchstreams escaping out in the form of Web applications, bookmarklets, address bar shortcuts, toolbars, context menus, et. al. This leads to somewhat haphazard innovation with uneven results.
Then again, maybe the second style is more in keeping with the Web's precepts and has a better chance to succeed.