7 Promising Sites That Died in 2008

Every service starts up with dreams of success and becoming the leader in their niche, but even the best laid plans sometimes end up not quite making it. What follows is a list of 7 sites and services that called it quits in 2008.

Some started in the same year they died, others really gave it a go, but in the end they all ended up calling it a day. From microblogging to video serving, a diverse mix of genres took the hit.

What sites that died this year are you going to miss?

DivX Stage 6 - Stage6 was the official video sharing site sponsored by the DivX company. In February of 2008 it was announced that Divx was closing Stage6 and instead going to focus all of their efforts on their DivX Connected products. The site is still up, but just with a message saying they are closed down.

DocSyncer - DocSyncer was a tool that allowed you to sync the documents on your hard drive with those in your Google Docs. It also supported versioning, and did all of this for free. Sadly the service never left beta and ceased operating in June of this year. The domain name currently does not resolve.

Eyespot.com - Eyespot was an online editor that allowed video mashup creation. In March of this year they opened up their services to everyone, but on September 30th they sent out a Twitter message saying they had shut down. The domain currently shows their shut down message, complete with a crying version of their logo.

GlobalPandora - On January 14th of this year, GlobalPandora launched, promising people outside of the USA the ability to listen to the popular Pandora music service. A mere five days later the dream came to an end as GlobalPandora shut down. The site is now lists news about music and how to listen to Pandora through other means.

Pownce - In July of 2007, Kevin Rose of Digg unveiled his secret new project, a Twitter-like microblogging platform named Pownce. While the service was in invite-only Beta testing, it was the talk of the town, but after it went public in January 2008, it never quite caught on. Six Apart purchased the site in early December 2008, and promptly announced the site would be shut down on the 15th of the month.

Social.FM - In September of 2007, Mercora renamed themselves Social.FM to promote the social aspects of their music discovery business. While it was a noble try, a little less than a year later, on July 31st, 2008 to be exact, the site shut down after three years of giving it a go. Neither of their domain names currently resolve.

TripHub.com - Founded in June of 2005 TripHub was a site focused on centralizing the information for groups trying to plan trips. In June of 2007 they had gotten as far as getting information shared with Orbitz, but alas the startup shut down in August of this year. The site is now a blog dedicated to travel.

From mashable