Webware

A would-be social network called Wallop has shut its doors, according to a message on the home page.

"Thank you for being part of the Wallop beta social-networking site," the message reads. "We really appreciate your feedback and support. The beta period will end on September 18th, 2008--after that date, you will no longer be able to access your account."

But Wallop wasn't just another tale of crushed Silicon Valley dreams. The site, which once aimed to compete with the likes of MySpace, had backing from none other than Microsoft.

Microsoft hadn't invested in Wallop in the traditional sense, but it was Microsoft researchers who built the technology that powered the site and then spun it off as a standalone business.

In 2005, the software giant announced an initiative to license the products of its research labs to select start-ups, one of which was Wallop. It launched Wallop , offering a business model that echoed of virtual-world avatars: you'd pay for modifications to spruce up your profile.

Wallop had also raised a round of Series A venture funding from Bay Partners in 2006.

Obviously, it never really caught on: Wallop was never talked about in the same sentences of even third-tier social networks. As we saw with the demise of Yahoo Mash last month, big-tech backing is by no means a guarantee of success when it comes to social networking.

Social.fm, a music site that was known as Mercora until last year, has officially folded.

"We regret to inform you and apologize for this inconvenience, but Social.fm will be shutting down the system on July 31st, 2008," a message on the site read.

The shutdown was first reported by GigaOM.

Despite having raised $5 million in venture funding from Norwest Venture Partners and signing a deal with Microsoft, Social.fm never found its niche. It originally started out as a peer-to-peer Web radio and music search site, and CEO Srivats Sampath once made the dubious claim that his company "beat Steve Jobs to the iPhone" by letting people share music wirelessly through its smartphone-based "M" service.

With its makeover as Social.fm, Mercora cut its subscription fee and focused more on social music. But with significantly larger competitors in the space--Pandora, Last.fm, Imeem, and iLike--Social.fm's traffic tumbled.

Disclaimer: Last.fm is part of CBS Interactive, which also publishes CNET News.

PodTech, a video podcast network that had taken over $7 million in venture funding, has been sold--and the price may have been a downright embarrassing $500,000.

The news was reported this week by Eric Eldon at VentureBeat, but Valleywag's Jackson West was floating the rumor with less detail last week. And Fake Steve Jobs jumped the gun a little bit by declaring the company dead last October.

The buyer is the Los Angeles-based ViewPartner, a "communications technology company" that seems to only produce Google results about the fact that it bought PodTech. And while no financial specifics were named in the release, VentureBeat reported that the price was around $500,000. Ouch.

PodTech's woes had been very public as high-profile employees started leaving: marketer Jeremiah Owyang, who became an analyst at Forrester; blogger Robert Scoble, essentially the face of the company; and even CEO John Furrier. It was reportedly out of money, despite having raised a $5.5 million venture round and then another $2 million from U.S. Ventures and Venrock.

The rough economy is making it a shaky ride for many start-ups, but PodTech may have suffered from additional problems: the niche of "podcasting" didn't play out the way many expected it to, instead blending into Web video and audio content alongside far more traditional programming. While a few podcasters have become stars, the "top podcast" charts at the iTunes store look a whole lot more like big media: NPR, Comedy Central, and um, the Jonas Brothers.

Not quite up PodTech's alley.