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Desktop.com Offers Comfortable Surroundings

New Internet-based application set lets you access your personal desktop from any browser-enabled PC.

By Dan Briody, PCWorld   

Touted as the first Web site of its kind, Desktop.com offers a graphical user interface for you to create a personal desktop. It can contain personal files, links to favorite Web sites, and various other services. The promise is that from any Web browser, you could log on to your own personal and familiar desktop.

As for competing with Sun Microsystems' recently announced StarPortal or future offerings from Microsoft, Desktop.com officials say the company is heading in a different direction.

"What we're doing is different in that we are focused on the environment and infrastructure of applications. We want to be the point where you log in," says Katie Burke, chief executive officer and cofounder of Desktop.com. "Applications aren't necessarily where we expect to be building value. It's more of an aggregation point."

Desktop.com offers 10MB of free storage space for work, personal, audio, or other files to which a user needs ubiquitous access. You can share files with other Desktop.com users so family and friends can see photos, announcements, or invitations. Company work groups can share documents, files, or to-do lists.

The company is also making available the application programming interface with which programmers can develop various Web-based applications. Applications running inside windows within Desktop.com are accessible through icons or pull down menus and look and feel similar to many PC programs.

As Web-based applications continue to proliferate, Desktop.com may serve as a way to aggregate disparate applications onto a desktop.