I am a source of buy-out inspiration for Internet big boys

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As a friend of mine has pointed out:
Mike has a knack for picking and using burgeoning technology companies, but is getting a little tired of his favorites then becoming gobbled up by Google, Yahoo!, etc...

It is becoming a bit tiresome to be a "buy-out inspiration for Google, Yahoo! and Amazon*", just look at the list of online services I use and count how many are now owned by one or the other.

Google-owned

Yahoo!-owned

Amazon eBay-owned

There's a few others that where independent when I started but have been bought by others:
  • Photobucket - bought by "MySpace"
  • Talkr - bought by LiveOnTheNet.com (I just discovered)

And so, what's left that is truly independent:
I say watch closely meebo, Omnidrive and Joost with one eye on Remember The Milk and Snap.

* None by Microsoft - I see that as symptomatic of both my aversion to Microsoft because they're a "PC focussed company" and to their aversion to the true nature of the Web as they're a "PC focussed company"

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