As of today Listbot functionality is turned off. On Aug. 20 the shutdown will be complete. In MS Sends Listbot to the Heap, Wired says the demise of Listbot is "reviving the fear that the free Web may be going the way of the dinosaur."

"Fear"...? C'mon.

"The whole industry is moving to subscription-based services," said Pradeem Rathinam, bCentral's lead product manager. "It's becoming more and more evident today that it's really hard to do business on the free-service model."

Bcentral expects to make ListBot's small business customers migrate towards List Builder, offering them a 40 percent discount. Rathinam said it's been a success. "List Builder has become the leading list service on the Internet today," he said.

On the other hand, free alternatives remain, including Microsoft's own MSN Communities.