Song of The Day: Digging In The Dirt - Artist: Peter Gabriel
Today I checked out a start-up from Santa Clara, CA: Webaroo. I came across the start-up reading an article in the WSJ Online by Kevin J. Delaney titled: Start-Up Firm Begins Service To Browse Web While Offline. It is a product that allows one to search the Web offline. At first the product reminded me of other online/offline products and tools like BackWeb, Pointcast (bought by AOL when InfoGate in ‘03), and AvantGo. For example, BackWeb in ‘97 allowed WSJ users to download content for offline use, but the service faded through time with broadband acceptance. Pointcast allowed one to view aggregated results, like news, in online/offline screensavers. Demand waned for its push technology when it encountered network congestion. AvantGo, I use today with my Treo 650 to download maps and other information.
However, since the service purports to index the entire Web for a PDA, smart phone, or laptop, I thought I would take a look. Furthermore, the WSJ quote by Eric Schmidt caught my attention:
“Imagine carrying all of Google with you in the equivalent of an iPod device,” Mr. Schmidt told financial analysts last year, saying such a device could be connected to the Internet wirelessly.
With this in mind I downloaded the software…
As I downloaded the software, I noticed that the service only works with Windows and with mobile devices using Windows Mobile 2003 operating system 2nd edition–bummer. This immediately left my PalmOne Treo 650 hanging in the distance. Since I had already taken the steps to download the software, I pressed on.
Anyway, I thought, I could still use and view the service via my laptop. Upon installation, I had the choice of adding a web pack or adding a web site. I decided to add my blog website (www.velocipeek.com) with link depth 1. Afterwards, I clicked the link and the browser opened, but it went into an infinite loop attempting to open the URL. Interestingly, the software listens on the local computer network interface (i.e., localhost). The URL I kept seeing was the following:
http://127.0.0.1:1000/webaroo/e29f1fe6/rewrite?type=html&url=http://www.velocipeek.com
I imagine that the software is encountering a redirect loop or some other URL rewriting error. Unfortunately, this is all I have time for today. Perhaps, in a future post I will attempt to troubleshoot this infinite loop error.
Webaroo may be a novel idea, but I plan to shy away until more phones are supported and until the product is more mature.