Protopage launched version 2.0 of its Ajax desktop today. I previously profiled Protopage in August. There are a number of new and interesting features, which are described in the Protopage blog. It continues to be extremely fast and easy to use. Protopage was an earlyish entrant into the Ajax desktop market, which is now crowded with products like Netvibes, Google, Microsoft Live and Zoozio. Goowy is also a choice, of course, although they have chosen Flash over Ajax for their platform. Microsoft Live is the only extensible product, with a growing number of third party widgets available for use. And there is yet another Ajax desktop product entering the market in the next few weeks that also has an open API for third party developers to add functionality. As I mentioned above, this is an extremely crowded market – with uncertain economics. → Read More
Company: Protopage Launched: May 15, 2005 Location: London Overview: Virtual desktops are in vogue this week. Unlike Goowy (profiled yesterday), which is flash based, Protopage is all Ajax, baby. Visually is is both functional and beautiful. Drag, drop, add, and delete. Totally cool. Applications are somewhat limited for now: sticky notes, to-dolists, favorite links and quick searches. Also, the initial start page is a bit crowded, although it took only a few minutes to customize it. I imagine they’ll have RSS, email and other cool widgets added soon – more are definitely needed. What’s the business model? No idea. It’s totally free and sans-ads, at least for now. No registration at all is required to use it, although to name the page you need to go through an email verification. Check it out. Additional Reading: goodblimey, foundontheweb, WorkHappy, downloadsquad, El Telendro, EducationalWeblogs, Slapjack, → Read More
