• 1010 Wins Web site/Associated Press, Thursday, April 27, 2006 10:46 AM

Webaroo, the application that lets you download relevant Internet content to your laptop or phone for on-the-go  browsing, always seemed too good to be true, and is, according to an Associated Press report. You might ask: how does the service know what kind of content is relevant to you? Users download "Web packs" like 64 mgs of world news or 6 gigabytes for the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. There are also packs for specific cities or topics of interest--the AP mentions soccer. You can also customize Webaroo to download content from sites you frequently go to. One of the problems with the service is you have to direct it to download the latest information from the Web--it doesn't do so automatically. The "New York" pack was far from comprehensive, the author said, providing yesterday's show listings and information about obscure delis and Chinese restaurants on the West Side when the users searched for "Upper East Side sushi."  A search for a cable provider kicked back information about hotels that offer cable TV. Also, Wikipedia never arrived, and Webaroo never told the user, as 6 gigs is a big space investment many packed computers don't spare room for. Bottom line: AP says the packs were far from complete, and while Webaroo does contain some useful information, you need a lot of available storage space to effectively use it.

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