. Microsoft's attempt to get into the blog platform biz ended with predictable results. Here's a clue: Whenever Microsoft attaches the word "Live" to anything, expect it to be dead within the year.

This is the nature of technology and especially of the Web, which those of us caught up in the day-to-day tsunami of news tend to forget: Empires rise and fall with great alacrity. Remember when AOL was the future of all media? Yeah, I never believed that either, but it was convincing enough to fool Time Warner.

HuffPo tech editress Bianca Bosker has a long piece on . At one time we thought the company was the Borg; turns out it was more like the Ferengi.

The lesson here is that the mighty do fall -- which folks like Facebook and Google would do well to remember.

Who do you think will be the next Web titan to go belly up? E-mail me: .