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Startup Webaroo to put the 'Web on a Hard Drive'?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the starting-the-data-storage-arms-race dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A new startup called Webaroo is launching Monday with an audacious proposition: You can search the Web without a net connection of any kind. Initial release consists of 'Web packs' on specific topics such as news, city guides or Wikipedia. Later this year they're promising a full-Web version that you can carry on a laptop -- provided you're willing to devote something in the neighborhood of 80 gig."

5 of 340 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds like a cache to me by liliafan · · Score: 5, Informative

    After reading the article, it sounds like they are just selling their web cache, nice idea but really unless they are selling really cheap I just can't see it picking up, especially considering the difficulties of getting the data to your drive, I mean an 80G download!

    Additionally what if I decide to follow site links that leave the cache?

    Yeah I can't really see this picking up.

    --
    GeekServ Unix Consulting Services (http://www.geekserv.com)
  2. All of the Web on a laptop? by omeg · · Score: 5, Informative

    "The Internet Archive Wayback Machine contains approximately 1 petabyte of data and is currently growing at a rate of 20 terabytes per month. This eclipses the amount of text contained in the world's largest libraries, including the Library of Congress. If you tried to place the entire contents of the archive onto floppy disks (we don't recommend this!) and laid them end to end, it would stretch from New York, past Los Angeles, and halfway to Hawaii."

    Internet Archive Frequently Asked Questions

  3. Re:Copyright infringment. by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

    How soon till the first lawsuit is filed.

    US copyright law, 17 USC 512, excuses operators of automated caches that conform to established cache control protocols (meta elements, /robots.txt, etc.) from copyright infringement liability.

  4. Cache exemption by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    Technically, they make a copy and the ISP doesn't.

    Isn't the ephemeral copy in the RAM of a router still a copy? And don't operators of automated caches have a fairly broad exemption under United States copyright law, 17 USC 512(b)?

  5. Re:Transoceanic flights? by timmyf2371 · · Score: 3, Informative
    I always fly Lufthansa whenever travelling trans-atlantic, providing you're willing to pay the WiFi premium, you get WiFi internet access for the duration of the flight.

    For shorter flights within the UK and Europe, it's safe to say I can cope without internet access for two hours.

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