Not every Web service is expected to grow into a real company, and be sold off or enter the public markets through IPO. Many of these are hobbies. Others should be seen with the same light as shareware, in that most content is for free, and if they make a few bucks, that's just fine. Sometimes, a Web service will launch and help a developer pad the resume, or use it as a springboard to the next job. And whether it's one person behind a product or a hundred, there's no value in prematurely suggesting they wave the white flag.

A lot of people seem to have forgotten that in the light of all the money pouring into the current startup waves. I began my "startup" as a hobby, and now as a way to help others out - I'm perfectly content to run it part-time and seek money elsewhere if that's the way it has to be. It's not "dead," it's just different.