New service allows laptop and PDA users to access Internet content offline
A Seattle company recently introduced a new service that allows people with laptops or handheld computers to surf through a range of Web content while they are offline.
Internet literally means an ‘inter’ connected world. But imagine a world where you have all the information of the Internet, your favorite websites and more without even connecting to the net. Well that is what a new service called Webaroo promises.
Webaroo has partnered with Acer to allow users to download the portion of the Internet they would most often use, heavily compressed to fit within a portion of space on a notebook computer. Webaroo software, which is available as a free download, is designed to allow users to access the Web via laptop or mobile device, when they are offline or cannot get on the Internet. It is a sort of superset of the offline Web caching already allowed by web browsers like Internet Explorer.
Customers require a bit of forethought to use the service. While connected to the Internet, they must first download the software client from Webaroo’s Web site and browse through the "Web packs" it has on offer there, which are folders of Web pages and other information grouped by subject area. They then download the Web packs they want, and can also download any Web pages they want from other sites. Then, when the user is offline, the content can be searched and viewed.
"It would be impossible to put the whole web – roughly 10 billion pages of data – on your hard drive or phone, so we are condensing it," said Bradley Husick, president of Webaroo.
"Webaroo allows you to take a cross section of the Web with you."
Since the service cannot archive search engines like Google, Webaroo acts as its own search engine. When the consumer opens up their browser, the Webaroo search box comes up. Instead of replacing ads that already exist on the Web, the company will sell the "offline Internet" as an additional form of revenue for customers.
"So, if an ad was there at the time [the site] was cached, it will still be there when you look at it [offline]," said Husick. "The difference is that most of those ads would not have the click-through, or the result page that you would go to, to view the ad."
Webaroo says the key to its offering is a back-end technology that crawls’ the Internet and analyses Web pages to choose the best content to include in the Web packs. It tries to select pages that contain a lot of information in order to appeal to as many users as possible. Subjects for the Web packs include news, sports and cities such as London and New York. Each packs include "thousands" of pages each, Webaroo said.
"We have a world news pack, which is like taking the daily papers with you and having them fully searchable," said Husick. "We have also put the entire Wikipedia in a pack that’s coming out in a couple of weeks."
Offline browsing – a radical idea?
Offline browsing by itself is not really a radical idea. Offline browsing works on the cache stored on your computer and lets you browse the last updated webpage, which you saved when you were online.
Cache of your favorite website is stored on your computer
You can set-up a schedule to synchronize the offline pages with the most recently updated ones
Each time users reconnect to the Internet, the software automatically updates content they have chosen, deleting older information to create more space. The software downloads the content in pieces over time so as not to hog the entire user’s bandwidth.
Offline browsing has been far from perfect. Exactly the right reason for webaroo to tap into the market.
Webaroo’s technology collects and compresses data that it feels users are most likely to use. These sites and the accompanying data are then compiled into the smallest space possible, with a selection/condensation ratio of 25,000:1.
Offline browsing had much scope for improvements primarily on the cache updating front and the content front. Exactly the two fronts Webaroo claims to have worked on.
The two critical components at the core of Webaroo technology: one is a system designed to maximize Content Density and the other is our Smart Caching technology. The Content Density component crawl the web, analyse web pages and select the subset of pages that maximize Content Density (i.e. the most content value in the least storage size). Webaroo determines the content value based on the diversity and quality of the pages.
Smart caching allows Webaroo to be smart in the way it updates the content users have downloaded. When users connect their mobile devices to the Internet the client software checks with the server to see if there are any updates available.
Webaroo has plans to announce the introduction of a laptop from Acer pre-loaded with about 40 gigabytes of Web. Webaroo’s founders say that they came upon this idea to launch an offline Web since the Internet, which is about a million gigabytes, has grown too huge.
Hardware Requirements
Users need a laptop running Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 (SP4) or Windows XP SP2 with at least 1GB of available storage. The service also works with handheld devices running Windows Pocket PC 2003 Second Edition, but because most handhelds have limited storage users will need an additional storage card if they want to store more than a single Web pack.
The service will soon also be compatible with Windows Mobile 5.0 devices, Webaroo said.
While the service itself is free, any connection fees to access and update the content will apply.
The company makes money through a targeted advertising model that lets companies reach consumers even when they are offline. Advertisers can opt to sponsor existing content packs, or can create separate co-branded packs.
It works in a similar way to other search engines, where you type in a search term and get a set of results and next to those results are sponsored text links that are targeted to your search term, said Husick. When you click on those links, you will be taken to the ad page, which is already stored in your PC or mobile device.
Webaroo ads will not replace the ads that already exist on any given site.
The first partnership announcement is with Acer. Acer has agreed to pre-install Webaroo on all of its notebook computers. The application is small, and allows the user to decide which and how much content to take with them. The company also has plans to extend its software offering later this year.
The next step — The "entire" Web
"We will have the entire Web to-go, so you will be able to search anything, anywhere on the Web, and it would fit within 40GB," said Husick. "This is ideal for pre-installed or receiving on HD or Blu-Ray DVDs."
In addition to offering Webaroo software online, the company has commitments with different manufacturers, to offer more than 10,000,000 software bundles in 2006.