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

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."

Comments

Dotcom v3.0

[Saven Marek]

A new startup called Webaroo is launching Monday with an audacious proposition: You can search the Web without a net connection of any kind.

If anyone doubted the next dotcom boom is upon us, this should put that doubt to rest.

Re:Dotcom v3.0

[caffeinemessiah]

I was JUST thinking that. This seems like the beginning of a whole slew of semi-ridiculous ideas that get funded because their proponents seem 'ahead of their time'. Did someone at a funding company not think of the following two points:

1) the web is growing at a phenomenal rate. in a few years, the only thing that you'll be able to fit on even high-density media is very narrow, specific content. is there really such a huge market for that?

2) wifi is nearly ubiquitous. why pay for a static snapshot of the web that will be obsolete in a few days when you can walk into a starbucks with you laptop and get the fresh stuff almost for free??

I'm sure the guys who want to put the web on a disk have thought these points through, but me...I just really want to sigh. and buy some short-term stocks.

Re:Dotcom v3.0

[tepples]

in a few years, the only thing that you'll be able to fit on even high-density media is very narrow, specific content.

The thing is that Wikipedia, with all its imperfections and gaps, is still a surprisingly good start.

Re:Dotcom v3.0

[Bogtha]

wifi is nearly ubiquitous.

I think you're way off on this one. On the other hand, I have a suitable substitute:

2. What the hell are they going to do about the copyright issues?

Re:Dotcom v3.0

[Xeriar]

What the hell are they going to do about the copyright issues?

Quoted for truth. I know I'm not the only one who thought "Hey, this would be cool... but the target websites are going to be pissed about losing their ad revenue."

For sites like Wikipedia and others whose goal is the distribution of their content, this isn't as much of a big deal (unless, in the case of Wikipedia, they snapshot a vandalized site...), but a lot of content providers won't be happy about getting their ad revenue stolen.

Re:Dotcom v3.0

[JourneyExpertApe]

Not to mention the copyright issues. I don't think many companies/individuals would want their websites being packaged and sold without their consent.

Copyright infringment.

[arthurpaliden]

How soon till the first lawsuit is filed.

Is this really the right time?

[php_krisp]

Is this really the right to to try this? when wi-fi connections are popping up all over the place and the internet's bigger than it ever has been before?

How are they going to handle dynamic things..

[Idimmu Xul]

e.g. searching? Having Wikipedia on your hdd is all well and good, but if you can't easily search it, what's the point?

80 gig web?

[hlh_nospam]

That would cover about 0.0000000001% of the web, give or take a few dozen orders of magitude.

Re:80 gig web?

[hlh_nospam]

No images and compression on the text would probably change that quite a bit.

Not enough so's you'd notice. What's the difference between one thimbleful of ocean and 100 thimblefuls of ocean? Besides trying to solve the wrong problem to begin with?

Re:80 gig web?

[TubeSteak]

You make a good point, but there are ways to squeeze the size down. They aren't archiving the entire ocean, just the top layer, which is what 99% of people look at anyways.

Compression, for one. Force people to use some proprietary browser (or a FireFox extension) and compress html files > xx KB so that the browser opens the archives on the fly. Zip up executables, pdf's, word documents, etc etc etc. Webservers & browsers use gzip to save bandwidth, why can't this archive use it to save space?

Convert bitmaps into jpegs, recompress/resize jpegs greater than xx KB or some arbitrary height x width. (and make people pay more for uncompressed/resized images).

Write up an automated tool to strip the html of links to ads while deleting the ad images/files too.

That's just off the top of my head, but if anyone had 40GB of web pages to sift through, I'm sure they can come up with some other intelligent ways to save space.

Re:Surfing is only part of the web...

[caffeination]

So your personal computing habits are the yardstick by which all IT products are to be measured?

When your argument is based exclusively on your opinions and personal experience, global absolutes like "this idea is bad" come off as arrogance. Phrases like "this is useless to me" are more accurate.

Is this even legal?

[sunwolf]

How are they to justify selling other peoples' websites? What about the sites' lost ad revenues?

The Net on a disk is not a net

[gihan_ripper]

Even if this is doable and legal, it runs entirely counter to the spirit of the Internet. The Internet on a hard disk is no longer a network, it becomes a passive entity with no possibility of interaction.

At the moment, we are seeing a return to the interactive origins of the Internet, prime examples being blogging, Wikipedia, and even Slashdot! If this projects takes off it will be harmful to interaction and will turn the Net into a glorified television.

However, I find it unlikely that Webaroo will gain currency, precisely because we have become dependent on an interactive and living Internet. When I use the Net, I want to be able to read and respond to my emails, to check my bank balance, shop online, and read the latest news. Why on earth would I want to have a static Internet on my laptop?

Re:Transoceanic flights?

[Theatetus]

So what should the transatlantic and transpacific frequent fliers use?

wget (while they're waiting in the airport).

Re:Cache exemption

[ammoQ]

It doesn't seem likely to me that those Webaroo guys will be able to fullfill the conditions of (2), especially (C) and (E). The cache exemption is obviously targeted towards _online_ caches. This makes sense, IMO.

Re:Pr0n?

[RoloDMonkey]

if(posts_to_slashdot && has_girlfriend)
  if(girlfriend.has_sensibilities)
    chance_of_lying = VERY_HIGH;
  else
    chance of lying = HIGH;

Re:Hm..

[edbulldog]

The only way one can store the "whole internet" in a 80GB drive is to drop off the pr0n. I mean... besides the pr0n, everything else should fit in a 80GB drive, right?

Re:Hm..

[Alex P Keaton in da]

Are you trying to be funny? 80 GB of PDF's out there? Buddy, there are departments of companies, not the whole company, that have more than 80 GB of PDFs available to the public on servers.... (sometimes limited public, i.e. customers, for owners manulas, docs etc....)