During one of our online Gear Diary discussions last week Wayne asked the question, “How will these various start up web services going to stay in business when there is no apparent business model?” It is a reasonable question and one that can be answered in two different way.

The first is the path Jott and reQall have recently taken. Both have begun offering paid versions of the service. (reQall kept their free service while Jott did not.) I hope both survive as they are both excellent services that offer a great ways to get work done on the go.

The other option is the ongoing shakeout that has one service after another disappear. We saw Google recently end the life span of Google Notebook. We saw I Want Sandy suspend service back in February.  And now this- Kwiry, the web 2.0 system that advertised itself as

see it? hear it? text it before you forget it!
Text reminders to your computer with your cell phone

is suspending service.

I’m not shedding any tears for Kwiry. I tried it when the beta first launched, but in a world of Jott and reQall transcribing voice notes, I didn’t find it compelling enough to use. It is, however, a reminder that before we become too dependent on any web service we need to make sure that they’re going to be around for longer than a few months.