Not everything is a text message
Russell often writes pretty good blog posts, but parts of his rant against business model-less Web 2.0 startups is bad analysis. Not all media must be monetized by charging the consumer. Advertising enables an indirect, brand or lead-generation, revenue model. Notable examples, Google and Yahoo. With the demand for leads in the real estate/housing business, Zillow is probably doing something very smart by building an audience and then charging for leads and advertising.