As an early adopter, you tend to sign up for web services long before they make it big and get purchased by the big guys (or in rare cases, become one of the big guys). And in many cases, a big guy (Google) takes a cool idea (Writely) and turns it into something that millions are using every day (Google Docs/Apps). Many of the services I have been used have been purchased by the big guys in some form or other: CBS owns Last.fm and Comcast has purchased both Fandango (a year ago) and Plaxo (this month) relatively recently. It seems that 95% of the time, both myself and the web community at large are pleased with the overall results of these mergers/takeovers/swallowingups. But then there is that 5%. Let's take a look at them in depth.

Jaiku

When Google bought this "other Twitter" 7 months ago, we all expected tons of feature-updates and Googlified integrations. According to the Jaiku FAQs of the purchase, "Activity streams and mobile presence are important areas where we believe Google can add a lot of value for users." And yet it has been months, nothing has changed, and users in general flock to the open, updated Twitter (recent Twitter server problems notwithstanding).

Feedburner

When Google bought Feedburner, the web stats/publishing application, I personally expected tight integration with Google Analytics to make a one-stop web stats software. Again, little has changed and I'm still logging in to one Google application to check visitors and one application (without a Google login) to check feed readers.

GrandCentral

This one is my personal annoyance. GrandCentral is a great phone service; heck, I use it for a home voicemail system as I don't have a land line. While this one is a bit more established than, say, Jaiku, I still haven't seen the Googlification that I have anticipated. Why can't I receive text messages to my GrandCentral number? Why doesn't it identify numbers from public ID databases? Why why why?

Like it or not, I think the reality is that the Big Guys don't always turn Cutesy StartUp into Pure Gold. While many of them become software and sites we frequent, just as many disappear into oblivion forever, or at least remain in some form of early beta status that doesn't make it to the Big Top. Personally, though, I'd love to see the Big Guys dedicate some more time (and publish regular updates!) to those little startups that still have thousands of loyal users. After all, I imagine they invested that dough for a reason.