"They copied all they could follow, But they couldn't copy my mind. And I left 'em sweating and stealing, A year and a half behind." Kipling

Google Base is alive, you need a Google account to check it out here. Played with it for a bit this morning. Cool map product integration. They have made the wise move of putting their vehicle vertical on page one. As one who worked in the online classifieds dodge I can respect and appreciate what Google is doing (with propers too to Craigslist and eBay and Yahoo). Congrats to the Google gang on your debut. Now to really make it cool...give me the option to import some audio to entertain me while I search.

Windows Live is also alive, in beta, you need a Hotmail or MSN account. No disrespect to the MS Live team, I know it's early, however, not seeing anything - yet - that would take me away from my Google homepage. Check out what is perhaps a very early version of Live here.

My sense is innovation is at work here. Google and MS and Craigslist and eBay and Yahoo will each create fresh new competitive space by competing to make their products the best of breed. Will the dead tree, broadcast, cable and wireless folks study (and learn from) these initiatives? Will they step up their efforts and creativity? What is badly needed here is some leap frog via some game changing and unprecedented creative collaboration...Stay tuned.