DISQUS

Ban groups over 1000? Seriously? Baratunde mentioned "apple students" has over 400,000 members in its group. Totally a pay to play move that may give some insight to, dare I say, a seedy underbelly of Facebook. Pretty effed up from a company thats building itself on openness. With millions and millions of users, doesn't 1000 users in a group seem a bit short sited?
The whole point is you JOIN a group. You see how many users are in the group. You can LEAVE the group if you don't like it or their messaging practices. Plain and simple.

Nick-
I totally agree with you that a couple of heavyweights will step up to the plate, cut through clutter, and bring something to the world even larger and more spectacular than Facebook. Who and when? The postman's guess would be as good as mine.
As far as what it will take to get people to realize the significance of these wonderful developments, well that a whole other story. It quite simply comes down to those who get it, and those who don't. As common knowledge and the course of technology exponentially speed up, there will eventually be some sort of mass convergence. I envision a point where you will no longer need multiple sources or forms of technology (social graphs included) to achieve whatever you want. You will simply be "plugged" into some form of network (I know, it's all so "borg-like", but its already headed in that direction). I think the only thing holding many people back is how overwhelming the choices are. Maybe (and not necessarily to anyones benefit) we'll see a mass conglomeration of companies and outlets, much like what has happened to the recording and news industries. Actually, not even maybe...that's already taking place. Unfortunately, this always affects innovation, but it would certainly have the power to shrink the gap between the technology "haves" and "have nots". Don't get me wrong, though, I'm certainly not in support of one or two "Uber Companies" running the show, it's just the way world currently works. Maybe something so revolutionary comes along that it will turn things upside down... here's to hoping for it, at least.