Desktop.com
| Industry | Application service provider |
|---|---|
| Fate | Shut down |
| Founded | December, 1998 |
| Defunct | 2001 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
|
Key people
|
Katie Burke Mitic, Larry Drebes, and Karen Drebes; Founders |
Desktop.com was an Application Service Provider founded by Katie Burke Mitic, Larry Drebes, and Karen Drebes. They created a Web application compatible with the Internet Explorer 4 browser (and announced compatibility with Netscape Navigator 4) that effectively simulates a user's desktop over the World Wide Web, so that it is accessible from anywhere.
A full window management and application launching system existed, controlled by JavaScript code. Much of this code was downloaded during the login process, which made the first access very long (e.g. a few minutes) but the resulting user experience was like that one of desktop applications and not what would have been expected from traditional web applications.
Desktop.com may be characterized as a predecessor to the later concepts of Ajax, rich Internet applications, web desktop, etc.
...
Wikipedia