Google+ doesn't have permalinks for comments so you'll have to search to find Tom Coates's epic rant vs the idea of federated social networks. It's compelling in many ways but I disagree with his minimization of the achievements of email and IM. It's true that they're not a cash cow for many companies, but from a user perspective I think we're clearly better off with open email rather than stuck in a walled garden.

His rip on standardization also misses the mark for me. What's wrong with having some layers of the app stack stabilize?

On this topic, it would be really interested to understand what happened to Usenet.