And so it goes.

When the market first crashed and it became even clearer how bad the economic climate had become,  in a behind the scenes team email, Judie prophetically remarked that she wondered how long it would be before the shakeout among newish technology offerings began. The answer is… not long at all.

Task management system I Want Sandy recently shut down operations. It was a shame, since the system was remarkably powerful at taking voice notes and converting them to tasks, memos or appointments.

Jott recently announced an end to all free services on February 2. Their low-cost ($3.95/month) plan will still be offered, but none of their free services will be available two weeks from now. The reason? The company needs to move toward profitability as quickly as possible if it is to survive.

And now this: Google has just announced they are ending development of Google Notebook. It will still be available for the time being but, obviously, it is not best not to rely on it. That’s a shame since I just started using it with the superb iPhone app gNotes.

When a big-wig like Google starts tightening the belt who knows who’s next?

A couple of lessons can immediately be learned here…

First- NEVER rely entirely on a web-based service for storing your material or getting work done.

Second- ALWAYS keep a backup of you data. Services can be replaced. The data that goes with them when they die can’t.

Third, medical advances may have slowed or ended Darwin’s survival of the fittest in humans, but it is alive and well in the world of tech.