Microsoft's apparently still enthusiastic about the work of Mike Toutonghi, a former distinguished engineer who initiated the Media Center version of Windows before leaving for startup world.

With support from some early Microsoft executives, Toutonghi in 2004 started Vizrea, a mobile phone image sharing service that never really took off.

Part of the problem was that it was geared toward advanced phones that are only lately getting traction.

After a big pullback last year, Vizrea was rechristened WebFives in May and positioned as a sort of social network for sharing videos and music, as well as photos, from a greater variety of mobile devices.

On Friday, Toutonghi notified WebFives users that the service will stop at the end of the year because the company was purchased by Microsoft. It sounds like some of its technology for uploading and sharing photoes and videos captured on phones could be added to Microsoft's online services suite.

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