In the past, many new ventures would often have one main long term aim – to become large and important enough, and then go public on the stock exchange. Now, many web-based start ups have different aims – to be bought out by one of the big boys – Google, Microsoft et al. Whilst this can cause problems with stability, the fact that more back room coders and ideas people are now prepared to go out on a limb with innovative ideas should give rise to interesting applications in the future.