That is the headline at Internet Outsider anyway.  I have to wonder when did $250 million become giving yourself away.  While the pundits are pontificating on how bad this sale is when compared to other recent sales like flickr or, worst of all, YouTube; we really need a reality check.

First of all, none of these services are really all that good.  Lets face it, they are all virtually clones of each other.  We have no ground breaking technological advances in the services that they offer.

What we have is some fairly routine, if not mediocre, software that was slapped together and, through some hefty marketing efforts (read giving away the farm), able to wrangle together a fairly substantial user base.

Anyone who lived through the last online advertising revolt will understand that this is not going to last.  Google has found a way to artificially extend this ad boom, but it will end.  Consumers grow tired of ads rapidly.  The number of clicks will diminish over the next few years, as will the number of people participating in the Google ad network when they realize the only one making money on the ads is Google.

To be honest, I think News Corp. paid to much for photobucket.  The software isn’t rocket science.  They should have just built it for half that amount.  $125 million would have likely given them software that was better than what they got for $250 million from photobucket.  Let’s face it.  Once MySpace offers a photo/video service of their own, photobucket was doomed anyway.

What I am waiting for is a social networking site that is full featured and gets it.  As soon as that happens, all this other junk will fade into the sunset.