The first two web annotation companies were... (Score 1)

...Thirdvoice and Webtaggers, who both launched their products simultaneously. Thirdvoice, launched by CS grads from Purdue, was panned immediately and a saynotothirdvoice community developed to shut them down. Webtaggers, launched in Austin by atypical techies from the day, changed course quickly, avoiding the backlash, as was later bought by Vignette.