Looking very much like an ageing internet pioneer, eBay this week shed two old possessions that will affect the way that users find web sites and how they communicate. The first to go was recommendation engine StumbleUpon which was returned to its original owners. The 2007 pairing of eBay and StumbleUpon had dissolved into a bizarre marriage according to Mashable. TechCrunch hinted at one reason for the divorce when it noted that eBay never used SU technology to find interesting things on its own site. ReadWriteWeb summarized the mostly positive reaction to the news, predicting that the loss of a hungry corporate parent would boost innovation and reverse the downward trend in SU visitors.

eBay apparently thought that it could fetch more money for Skype and on Tuesday they announced plans for a 1H 2010 IPO. The expected synergy for the 2005 acquisition was that eBay users would haggle by phone, a strategy that fizzled in a market where people prefer text over voice. The IPO could have far reaching implications for internet marketers as PaidContent noted with a short list of other services involved in shaky marriages.

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