Steve Rubel penned a column for AdAge this morning in which he makes a very concise, clear-minded prediction: that “digital curation” will be the “next big thing to shake the Web.”

Via AdAge:

It’s clear to me, at least, that digital curation — both automated and human-powered — will be the next big thing to shake the web. There’s an evergreen need for those who can separate art from junk online. However, in this era, journalists won’t be the only ones to fulfill it. Brands, as the examples above illustrate, can play here too.

We couldn’t agree more. Indeed, much of the focus of FM’s business over the last couple of years has been on developing and perfecting this very idea. As an example, Steve points out UPS’s Popurls Brown Edition, a FM/Popurls-developed site that curates business content, a category particularly important to UPS. Thanks, Steve, for the shout-out!

Here is a small sample of FM’s work in the “digital curation” category. Many of these take curation to another level with the addition of original content and community functionality.

• Micrsoft’s ExecTweets and ExecTweets IT
• Intel’s MyLifeScoop
• Asus’s WePC
• Palm’s TrendTracker
• Many more…