I’m a sucker for using applications that feed the content I like to get to, through one big funnel. You know, those aggregators, and hubs and portals that promise to deliver all of your interests in one clean dashboard?

Trouble is, I realize I often have too many funnels.

• I use Bloglines for keeping up with the most interesting content.
• I use Hootsuite (when at my desk) for those tweeps I like to follow
• I have Seesmic on my phone for the same thing, thought only when on the move

So I’ve been very interested in how Flipboard works for the iPad. It promises to reign in “the stuff you care about all in one place.” Content aggregration, in other words.

What’s more interesting than the aggregation, however, is the layout; how it re-organizes various types of content and pulls it into a reading experience. No wonder they call it ‘your magazine.’

Which brings me to the idea of what a magazine means to us now, as we seek out knowledge in a multi-media, social-media enriched world.

1. Is it a aggregate of  everything you really wanted to get to but had no time to visit individually?
2. Is it a smart filter that chooses (or is set up to select) knowledge we never knew existed?
3. It it the experience of time spent reading, commenting and digging deeper into topics in a way that the fleeting newspaper experience does not entertain?
4. Or, it it a form that opens up little slits of light into our cloudy world?

I’ve said it before: I’m a magazine junkie –the printed kind. If I had to choose one, I’ll go with #2 above. The filter. Incidentally, that’s how I choose my online content as well when it comes to RSS readers or search tools.

What’s your idea of a magazine?