Webaroo Offers Online Content Offline

Written by Adam Gosling

Tuesday, 11 April 2006

Taking the online world offline could be the solution for mobile users struggling to find a way to connect to the Internet. A new start-up called Webaroo (American despite the name) has launched an advertising supported free service which packages up Web content so you can take it on the road with you. Webaroo lets you search the web and access Internet sites via a laptop or handheld computer even when there is no Internet connection. Simply put, the service searches the net and finds site with a lot of information relevant to a topic you want, compresses it and stores it on your laptop so you can look at it later. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it. The smarts are of course in the execution. Once you have the free software installed, you can download ‘web packs’ on a variety of subjects, such as news and sports or about major global cities (New York, London and Mumbai are given as examples). Each web pack contains thousands of relevant web pages identified by Webaroo’s search technology and identified has having high value content in the least amount of space. Users can also elect particular websites that they want to store rather than rely on Webaroo to make all the decisions. Next time you connect your mobile device to the Internet, the system checks for any updates and synchronises your local copy.  “As mobile use grows, consumers want to be able to do more with their mobile devices” said Rakesh Mathur, CEO of Webaroo. “Webaroo brings the power of web search to mobile devices with an innovative product that is truly ubiquitous and fast. At home or on the go, in the air or on vacation, users can now find the information they need, wherever they are.” It’s an idea that could catch on. Acer has announced it plans to bundle the Webaroo software on its laptop PCs. “Acer believes that the new, powerful ability to search the web offline will bring tremendous advantages for consumers and business people,” said Campbell Kan, Head of Mobile Computing Business Unit, Acer. “Acer is committed to being first-to-market with innovative products that are easy-to-use, dependable and empowering—enabling our users to be more productive. We plan on incorporating Webaroo's software into Acer's mobile PCs. We look forward to creating mutual success for Acer and Webaroo and even greater satisfaction for our customers.” We guess the only way to find out if this is worth the hype is to give it a try Webaroo Related news items Mobile Solutions Groups Consolidate -14/08/2007 Commprove Wins GSM Association Global Mobile Network Quality Award -14/02/2007 Exradia Launches A Safe Mobile And Wireless Lifestyle Solution -13/02/2007 Huawei launches its next-generation Convergent Billing Solution at 3GSM -13/02/2007 Roamware Dials Up The Future Of Mobile Content Sharing With Media Call -13/02/2007 Newer news items Fastest CF Cards Now 40MBps Read/Write -20/07/2006 New Storage Card Standard Increases Capacities -19/07/2006 8GB 133X CompactFlash From Lexar -19/07/2006 Solid State Drives Could Replace Hard Drives -17/07/2006 Run Windows Apps From Your USB Drive -13/07/2006 Older news items TRANSFLASH APPROVED BY SDA -13/07/2005 SECURE USB DRIVE -26/04/2005 Tag This Now: