I don't think I've ever heard of pipes to be able to have forgotten about it. However, after browsing the website for about 3 seconds I closed the window out of disgust with no idea what the product did. Compare this to IFTTT (which is fairly well known in this sphere) or zapier (which I had never heard of, but could figure it out after a few seconds on the website). It really might be all about presentation. Unfortunately I'm not willing to evaluate evaluate this statement in regard to pipes because I'm not willing to look at their website any longer to see if they actually do what the article claims.
There really is some really cool tech "locked up" in these big tech companies. Yahoo Pipes, Google Fusion Tables...
I think startups are, in a way, almost required to unlock the full potential of novel tech ideas. A startup can apply an awesome idea to a niche, gain traction, and expand whereas the defacto launch of a tech product at BigCo X or Y applies the tech across a broad segment of their user base. Broad launches are a good way to make your product generally available, but a bad way to ensure it truly solves some core need your customers have.
