My coworkers like to joke that an endorsement from me is the kiss of death to any Web 2.0 tool. It seems every time I turn around, some new tool I’ve recently tried is shutting down. Last year, I fell in love with Omnisio, a tool that allowed users to create compilations of YouTube video clips. Omnisio also had some basic editing features that let users trim out whatever they didn’t need from each clip, making it possible for instructors to assemble highly focused montages of useful video clips.  Within a few weeks of the time I’d discovered Omnisio, Google bought the company. The Omnisio site currently states that its staff is thrilled to be using their skills to improve YouTube, but so far, Omnisio’s features are nowhere to be found.

After my Omnisio heartbreak, I stumbled upon CircaVie, AOL’s tool for building time lines that could be enhanced with images and video. CircaVie always lacked a few key features that would have made it ideal for educators, but it was easy to use and worked with any AOL or AOL Instant Messenger account name. So I began recommending it to a few instructors and even included it in a few conference presentations. Sadly, the CircaVie site was shut down on January 15, 2009.

The list goes on. As of June 15, online video editing tool JumpCut will be no more. (This was particularly surprising, since JumpCut is owned by deep-pocketed Yahoo!) On June 12, I received an e-mail from Flowgram, a Web-based alternative to PowerPoint, announcing that they’d be closing up shop by the end of the month.

As I ran down the list in my mind, I realized that all of these tools had one thing in common: almost all of them had no source of revenue or depended entirely on ads to stay alive. I used to think free tools like these were a great way to work around the limitations of a bare-bones learning-management system. I also thought they could provide an interim solution while committees took months or years to approve a university-wide rollout of a new tool.

Now it’s clear to me that the best things in life aren’t always free. While we still need quick solutions for small-scale pilot projects, it’s important to recognize that you often get what you pay for when it comes to educational technology. And by that, I don’t mean the expensive tool is always the best. I simply mean when you pay for something (even if it’s just a few dollars), you usually get something in return (like a more reliable service that doesn’t shut down overnight).

While it’s sad to see innovation squelched by the almighty dollar, the current recession has done us all a favor in a way. By killing off weaker startups, there’s room for the best to thrive. For example, VoiceThread offers a great service that makes it easy to build presentations with voice comments, and the thinning of this field should make it easier for VoiceThread to grow its base of paying subscribers. And more paying customers means more money to invest in a reliable, useful product. If you’re a business owner who accepts card payments, you know how important it is to get the cheapest card payment machine for your business.

Similarly, more people should warm up to Evoca, one of the few audio-sharing sites that offers in-browser recording and embeddable audio players. I was a bit disappointed to discover a while back that Evoca stopped offering permanent, free accounts. (They now only offer free thirty-day trials.) But I completely understand why this change was needed. Bandwidth isn’t free, and Evoca now charges a reasonable $2.95 for their basic account, which offers enough storage to meet most instructors’ needs.

So the next time you’re looking for a quick fix to an educational-technology dilemma, ask yourself if there’s a tool available that you can actually pay for. Even if there are free alternatives, it might be worth suffering through a bit of paperwork and shelling out a few dollars a month for something that won’t be here today and gone tomorrow.